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(Eatbolic   Cbnrcbmen 
in  Science 


[FIRST  SERIES] 


SKETCHES  OF  THE  LIVES  OF  CATHOLIC 
ECCLESIASTICS  WHO  WERE  AMONG 
THE     GREAT     FOUNDERS    IN    SCIENCE 


JAMES  J.  WALSH,  K.St.G.,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  Litt.D. 

Dean  and  Professor  of  Medicine  and  of  Nervous  Diseases 
at  Fordham  University  School  of  Medicine;  Professor 
of  Physiological  Psychology  in  the  Cathedral  Col- 
lege, New  York;  Member  of  A.M.  A.,  N.  Y. 
State  Med.  Soc,  A.A.A.S.,  Life  Mem. 
of  N.  Y.  Historical  Society. 


SECOND   EDITION 


^\ 


Philadelphia 
American  Ctckstasttcal  Eetoieto 

MCMX. 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


Copyright,  iqo6,  1910 

American  Ecclesiastical  IReview 
Gbe  2)olpbin  ipress 


7092 


CATHOLIC  CHURCHMEN 
IN  SCIENCE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  Member  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/catholicchurchmeOOwals 


PREFACE. 

THE  following  sketches  of  the  lives  of  clergymen 
who  were  great  scientists  have  appeared  at  various 
times  during  the  past  five  years  in  Catholic  magazines. 
They  were  written  because  the  materials  for  them  had 
gradually  accumulated  during  the  preparation  of  vari- 
ous courses  of  lectures,  and  it  seemed  advisable  to  put 
them  in  order  in  such  a  way  that  they  might  be  helpful 
to  others  working  along  similar  lines.  They  all  range 
themselves  naturally  around  the  central  idea  that  the 
submission  of  the  human  reason  to  Christian  belief,  and 
of  the  mind  and  heart  to  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
is  quite  compatible  with  original  thinking  of  the  highest 
order,  and  with  that  absolute  freedom  of  investigation 
into  physical  science,  which  has  only  too  often  been 
said  to  be  quite  impossible  to  churchmen.  For  this 
reason  friends  have  suggested  that  they  should  be 
published  together  in  a  form  in  which  they  would  be 
more  easy  of  consultation  than  when  scattered  in  dif- 
ferent periodicals.  It  was  urged,  too,  that  they  would 
thus  also  be  more  effective  for  the  cause  which  they 
uphold.  This  friendly  suggestion  has  been  yielded  to, 
whether  justifiably  or  not  the  reader  must  decide  for 
himself.  There  is  so  great  a  flood  of  books,  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent,  ascribing  their  existence  to  the  advice  of 
well-meaning  friends,  that  we  poor  authors  are  evi- 
dently not  in  a  position  to  judge  for  ourselves  of  the 
merit  of  our  works  or  of  the  possible  interest  they 
may  arouse. 

(vii) 


Vlll  PREFACE 

I  have  to  thank  the  editors  of  the  American  Catholic 
Quarterly  Review,  of  the  Ave  Maria,  and  of  The 
Ecclesiastical  Review  and  The  Dolphin,  for  their  kind 
permission  to  republish  the  articles  which  appeared 
originally  in  their  pages.  All  of  them,  though  sub- 
stantially remaining  the  same,  have  been  revised,  modi- 
fied in  a  number  of  particulars,  and  added  to  very 
considerably  in  most  cases. 

The  call  for  a  second  edition — the  third  thousand — 
of  this  little  book  is  gratifying.  Its  sale  encouraged 
the  preparation  of  a  Second  Series  of  Catholic 
Churchmen  in  Science,  and  now  the  continued  de- 
mand suggests  a  Third  Series,  which  will  be  issued 
during  the  year.  Some  minor  corrections  have  been 
made  in  this  edition,  but  the  book  is  substantially  the 
same. 


"&  sortoto'fii  croton  of  aDmito.' 


THIS  BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED  TO  THE 
MEMORY  OF  MY  MOTHER 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface   ix 

I.    The  Supposed  Opposition  of  Science  and 

Religion    3 

II.    Copernicus  and  His  Times 15 

III.  Basil    Valentine:     Founder    of    Modern 

Chemistry    45 

IV.  Linacre:    Scholar,  Physician,  Priest 79 

V.    Father       Kircher,        S.J. :        Scientist, 

Orientalist,  and  Collector 11 1 

VI.    Bishop  Stensen:   Anatomist  and  Father 

of  Geology  137 

VII.    Abbe     Hauy:      Father     of     Crystallog- 
raphy       169 

VIII.    Abbot    Mendel:     A    New    Outlook    in 

Heredity   195 

(ix) 


I. 

THE    SUPPOSED    OPPOSITION    OF 
SCIENCE  AND  RELIGION. 


BOSTON   COLLEGE 

FACULTY  LIBRARY 

CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


I. 


THE  SUPPOSED  OPPOSITION  OF  SCIENCE 
AND  RELIGION. 

A  COMMON  impression  prevails  that  there 
is  serious,  if  not  invincible,  opposition  be- 
tween science  and  religion.  This  persuasion  has 
been  minimized  to  a  great  degree  in  recent  years, 
and  yet  sufficient  of  it  remains  to  make  a  great 
many  people  think  that,  if  there  is  not  entire  in- 
compatibility between  science  and  religion,  there 
is  at  least  such  a  diversity  of  purposes  and  aims 
in  these  two  great  realms  of  human  thought  that 
those  who  cultivate  one  field  are  not  able  to  ap- 
preciate the  labors  of  those  who  occupy  them- 
selves in  the  other.  Indeed,  it  is  usually  accepted 
as  a  truth  that  to  follow  science  with  assiduity  is 
practically  sure  to  lead  to  unorthodoxy  in  re- 
ligion. This  is  supposed  to  be  especially  true  if 
the  acquisition  of  scientific  knowledge  is  pur- 
sued along  lines  that  involve  original  research 
and  new  investigation.  Somehow,  it  is  thought 
that  any  one  who  has  a  mind  free  enough  from 
the  influence  of  prejudice  and  tradition  to  be- 
come an  original  thinker  or  investigator,  is  in- 
evitably prone  to  abandon  the  old  orthodox  lines 
of  thought  in  respect  to  religion. 

Like  a  good  many  other  convictions  and  per- 
suasions  that   exist   more   or   less    as   common- 

3 


CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 


-C_ 


places  in  the  subconscious  intellects  of  a  great 
many  people,  this  is  not  true.  Our  American 
humorist  said  that  it  is  not  so  much  the  ignor- 
ance of  mankind  that  makes  him  ridiculous  as 
the  knowing  so  many  things  "  that  ain't  so." 
The  supposed  opposition  between  science  and  re- 
ligion is  precisely  an  apposite  type  of  one  of  the 
things  "  that  ain't  so."  It  is  so  firmly  fixed  as 
a  rule,  however,  that  many  people  have  accepted 
it  without  being  quite  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
it  exists  as  one  of  the  elements  influencing  many 
of  their  judgments — a  very  important  factor  in 
their  apperception. 

Now,  it  so  happens  that  a  number  of  prom- 
inent original  investigators  in  modern  science 
__were  not  only  thoroughly  orthodox  in  their  re- 
ligious beliefs,  but  were  even  faithful  clergymen 
and  guiding  spirits  for  others  in  the  path  of 
Christianity.  The  names  of  those  who  are  in- 
cluded in  the  present  volume  is  the  best  proof  of 
this.  The  series  of  sketches  was  written  at  vari- 
ous times,  and  yet  there  was  a  central  thought 
guiding  the  selection  of  the  various  scientific 
workers.  Most  of  them  lived  at  about  the  time 
when,  according  to  an  unfortunate  tradition  that 
has  been  very  generally  accepted,  the  Church 
dominated  human  thinking  so  tyrannously  as 
practically  to  preclude  all  notion  of  original  in- 
vestigation in  any  line  of  thought,  but  especially 
in  matters  relating  to  physical  science.  Most  of 
the  men  whose  lives  are  sketched  lived  during 
the  fifteenth,  sixteenth,  and  first  half  of  the  seven. 


SCIENCE   AND   RELIGION 


teenth  centuries.  All  of  them  were  Catholic 
clergymen  of  high  standing,  and  none  of  them 
suffered  anything  like  persecution  for  his  opin- 
ions; all  remained  faithful  adherents  of  the 
Church  through  long  lives. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  volume,  without  being  in 
any  sense  controversial,  may  tend  to  throw  light 
on  many  points  that  have  been  the  subject  of 
controversy;  and  by  showing  how  absolutely 
free  these  great  clergymen-scientists  were  to 
pursue  their  investigations  in  science,  it  may 
serve  to  demonstrate  how  utterly  unfounded  is 
the  prejudice  that  would  declare  that  the  eccle- 
siastical authorities  of  these  particular  centuries 
were  united  in  their  opposition  to  scientific  ad- 
vance. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  at  times  men  have  been 
the  subject  of  persecution  because  of  scientific 
opinions.  In  all  of  these  cases,  without  excep- 
tion, however — and  this  is  particularly  true  of 
such  men  as  Galileo,  Giordano  Bruno,  and  Mich- 
ael Servetus — a  little  investigation  of  the  personal 
character  of  the  individuals  involved  in  these 
persecutions  will  show  the  victims  to  have  been 
of  that  especially  irritating  class  of  individuals 
who  so  constantly  awaken  opposition  to  whatever 
opinions  they  may  hold  by  upholding  them  over- 
strenuously  and  inopportunely.  They  were  the 
kind  of  men  who  could  say  nothing  without,  to 
some  extent  at  least,  arousing  the  resentment  of 
those  around  them  who  still  clung  to  older  ideas. 
We  all  know  this  class  of  individual  very  well. 


6  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

In  these  gentler  modern  times  we  may  even  be- 
wail the  fact  that  there  is  no  such  expeditious 
method  of  disposing  of  him  as  in  the  olden  time. 
This  is  not  a  defence  of  what  was  done  in  their 
regard,  but  is  a  word  of  explanation  that  shows 
how  human  were  the  motives  at  work  and  how 
unecclesiastical  the  procedures,  even  though 
church  institutions,  Protestant  and  Catholic  alike, 
were  used  by  the  offended  parties  to  rid  them  of 
obnoxious  argumentators. 

In  this  matter  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
persecution  has  been  the  very  common  associate 
of  noteworthy  advances  in  science,  quite  apart 
from  any  question  of  the  relations  between 
science  and  religion.  There  has  scarcely  been  a 
single  important  advance  in  the  history  of  ap- 
plied science  especially,  that  has  not  brought 
down  upon  the  devoted  head  of  the  discoverer, 
for  a  time  at  least,  the  ill-will  of  his  own  gener- 
ation. Take  the  case  of  medicine,  for  instance. 
Vesalius  was  persecuted,  but  not  by  the  ecclesias- 
tical authorities.  The  bitter  opposition  to  him 
and  to  his  work  came  from  his  colleagues  in 
medicine,  who  thought  that  he  was  departing 
from  the  teaching  of  Galen,  and  considered  that 
a  cardinal  medical  heresy  not  to  be  forgiven. 
Harvey,  the  famous  discoverer  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  lost  much  of  his  lucrative  medical 
practice  after  the  publication  of  his  discovery, 
because  his  medical  contemporaries  thought  the 
notion  of  the  heart  pumping  blood  through  the 
arteries   to  be   so   foolish   that  they  refused   to 


SCIENCE   AND   RELIGION 


admit  that  it  could  come  from  a  man  of  common 
sense,  much  less  from  a  scientific  physician.  Nor 
need  it  be  thought  that  this  spirit  of  opposition 
to  novelty  existed  only  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  Almost  in  our  own  time 
Semmelweis,  who  first  taught  the  necessity  for 
extreme  cleanliness  in  obstetrical  work,  met  with 
so  much  opposition  in  the  introduction  of  the 
precautions  he  considerd  necessary  that  he  was 
finally  driven  insane.  His  methods  reduced  the 
mortality  in  the  great  lying-in  hospitals  of 
Europe  from  nearly  ten  per  cent  for  such  cases 
down  to  less  than  one  per  cent,  thus  saving  many 
thousands  of  lives  every  year. 

Despite  this  very  natural  tendency  to  decry 
the  value  of  new  discoveries  in  science  and  the 
opposition  they  aroused,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  lives  of  these  clergymen  scientists  show  us 
that  they  met  with  much  more  sympathy  in  their 
work  than  was  usually  accorded  to  original  in- 
vestigators in  science  in  other  paths  in  life.  This 
is  so  different  from  the  ordinary  impression  in 
the  matter  that  it  seems  worth  while  calling  it  to 
particular  attention.  While  we  have  selected 
lives  of  certain  of  the  great  leaders  in  science,  we 
would  not  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  these 
are  the  only  ones  among  the  clergymen  of  the 
last  four  centuries  who  deserve  an  honorable 
place  high  up  in  the  roll  of  successful  scientific 
investigators.  Only  those  are  taken  who  illus- 
trate activity  in  sciences  that  are  supposed  to 
have  been  especially  forbidden  to  clergymen.     It 


8  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

has  been  said  over  and  over  again,  for  instance, 
that  there  was  distinct  ecclesiastical  opposition  to 
the  study  of  chemistry.  Indeed,  many  writers 
have  not  hesitated  to  say  that  there  was  a  bull,  or 
at  least  a  decree,  issued  by  one  or  more  of  the 
popes  forbidding  the  study  of  chemistry.  This 
is  not  only  not  true,  but  the  very  pope  who  is  said 
to  have  issued  the  decree,  John  XXII,  was  him- 
self an  ardent  student  of  the  medical  sciences. 
We  still  possess  several  books  from  him  on  these 
subjects,  and  his  decree  was  meant  only  to  sup- 
press pseudo-science,  which,  as  always,  was  ex- 
ploiting the  people  for  its  own  ends.  The  fact 
that  a  century  later  the  foundation  of  modern 
chemical  pharmacology  was  laid  by  a  Benedictine 
monk,  Basil  Valentine,  shows  how  unfounded  is 
the  idea  that  the  papal  decree  actually  hampered 
in  any  way  the  development  of  chemical  inves- 
tigation or  the  advance  of  chemical  science. 

Owing  to  the  Galileo  controversy,  astronomy 
is  ordinarily  supposed  to  have  been  another  of 
the  sciences  to  which  it  was  extremely  indiscreet 
at  least,  not  to  say  dangerous,  for  a  clergyman 
to  devote  himself.  The  great  founder  of  mod- 
ern astronomy,  however,  Copernicus,  was  not 
only  a  clergyman,  but  one  indeed  so  faithful  and 
ardent  that  it  is  said  to  have  been  owing  to  his 
efforts  that  the  diocese  in  which  he  lived  did  not 
go  over  to  Lutheranism  during  his  lifetime,  as 
did  most  of  the  other  dioceses  in  that  part  of 
Germany.  The  fact  that  Copernicus's  book  was 
involved   in  the   Galileo   trial   has   rendered   his 


SCIENCE   AND   RELIGION 


position  still  further  misunderstood,  but  the  mat- 
ter is  fully  cleared  up  in  the  subsequent  sketch  of 
his  life.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  in  astronomy 
particularly  that  clergymen  have  always  been  in 
the  forefront  of  advance ;  and  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  it  was  the  Catholic  Church  that 
secured  the  scientific  data  necessary  for  the  cor- 
rection of  the  Julian  Calendar,  and  that  it  was  a 
pope  who  proclaimed  the  advisability  of  the  cor- 
rection to  the  world.  Down  to  our  own  day 
there  have  always  been  very  prominent  clergy- 
men astronomers.  One  of  the  best  known  names 
in  the  history  of  the  astronomy  of  the  nineteenth 
century  is  that  of  Father  Piazzi,  to  whom  we 
owe  the  discovery  of  the  first  of  the  asteroids. 
Other  well-known  names,  such  as  Father  Secchi, 
who  was  the  head  of  the  papal  observatory  at 
Rome,  and  Father  Perry,  the  English  Jesuit, 
might  well  be  mentioned.  The  papal  observa- 
tory at  Rome  has  for  centuries  been  doing  some 
of  the  best  work  in  astronomy  accomplished  any- 
where, although  it  has  always  been  limited  in  its 
means,  has  had  inadequate  resources  to  draw  on, 
and  has  succeeded  in  accomplishing  what  it  has 
done  only  because  of  the  generous  devotion  of 
those  attached  to  it. 

To  go  back  to  the  Galileo  controversy  for  a 
moment,  there  seems  no  better  answer  to  the 
assertion  that  his  trial  shows  clearly  the  opposi- 
tion between  religion,  or  at  least  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  and  science,  than  to  recall,  as  we  have 
done,  in  writing  the  accompanying  sketch  of  the 


10  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

life  of  Father  Kircher,  S.  J.,  that  just  after  the 
trial  Roman  ecclesiastics  very  generally  were 
ready  to  encourage  liberally  a  man  who  devoted 
himself  to  all  forms  of  physical  science,  who 
was  an  original  thinker  in  many  of  them,  who 
was  a  great  teacher,  whose  writings  did  more  to 
disseminate  knowledge  of  advances  in  science 
than  those  of  any  man  of  his  time,  and  whose 
idea  of  the  collection  of  scientific  curiosities  into 
a  great  museum  at  Rome  (which  still  bears  his 
name)  was  one  of  the  fertile  germinal  sugges- 
tions in  which  modern  science  was  to  find  seeds 
for  future  growth. 

It  is  often  asserted  that  geology  was  one  of 
the  sciences  that  was  distinctly  opposed  by 
churchmen ;  yet  we  shall  see  that  the  father  of 
modern  geology,  one  of  the  greatest  anatomists 
of  his  time,  was  not  only  a  convert  to  Catholicity, 
but  became  a  clergyman  about  the  time  he  was 
writing  the  little  book  that  laid  the  foundation 
of  modern  geology.  We  shall  see,  too,  that,  far 
from  religion  and  science  clashing  in  him,  he 
afterwards  was  made  a  bishop,  in  the  hope  that 
he  should  be  able  to  go  back  to  his  native  land 
and  induce  others  to  become  members  of  that 
Church  wherein  he  had  found  peace  and  happi- 
ness. 

In  the  modern  times  biology  has  been  sup- 
posed to  be  the  special  subject  of  opposition,  or 
at  least  fear,  on  the  part  of  ecclesiastical  author- 
ities. It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  life  of  Abbot 
Mendel  has  been  introduced.     While  working  in 


SCIENCE   AND   RELIGION  II 

his  monastery  garden  in  the  little  town  of  Briinn 
in  Moravia,  this  Augustinian  monk  discovered 
certain  precious  laws  of  heredity  that  are  consid- 
ered by  progressive  twentieth-century  scientists 
to  be  the  most  important  contributions  to  the 
difficult  problems  relating  to  inheritance  in  biol- 
ogy that  have  been  made. 

These  constitute  the  reasons  for  this  little  book 
on  Catholic  clergymen  scientists.  It  is  published, 
not  with  any  ulterior  motives,  but  simply  to  im- 
press certain  details  of  truth  in  the  history  of 
science  that  have  been  neglected  in  recent  years 
and,  by  presenting  sympathetic  lives  of  great 
clergymen  scientists,  to  show  that  not  only  is 
there  no  essential  opposition  between  science  and 
religion,  but  on  the  contrary  that  the  quiet  peace 
of  the  cloister  and  of  a  religious  life  have  often 
contributed  not  a  little  to  that  precious  placidity 
of  mind  which  seems  to  be  so  necessary  for  the 
discovery  of  great,  new  scientific  truths. 


II. 


COPERNICUS  AND  HIS  TIMES. 


ALL  the  vast  and  most  progressive 
systems  that  human  wisdom 
has  brought  forth  as  substitutes  for 
religion,  have  never  succeeded  in  in- 
teresting any  but  the  learned,  the 
ambitious,  or  at  most  the  prosperous 
and  happy.  But  the  great  majority 
of  mankind  can  never  come  under 
these  categories.  The  great  major- 
ity of  men  are  suffering,  and  suffering 
from  moral  as  well  as  physical  evils. 
Man's  first  bread  is  grief,  and  his  first 
want  is  consolation.  Now  which  of 
these  systems  has  ever  consoled  an 
afflicted  heart,  or  repeopled  a  lonely 
one?  Which  of  these  teachers  has 
ever  shown  men  how  to  wipe  away  a 
tear?  Christianity  alone  has  from  the 
beginning  promised  to  console  man 
in  the  sorrows  incidental  to  life  by 
purifying  the  inclinations  of  his  heart, 
and  she  alone  has  kept  her  promise. — 
Montalembert,  Introduction  to  Life 
of  St.  Elizabeth. 


NTCOLAO   COPERNICO 


II. 

COPERNICUS  AND  HIS  TIMES. 

THE  association  of  the  name  of  Copernicus 
with  that  of  Galileo  has  always  cast  an  air 
of  unorthodoxy  about  the  great  astronomer. 
The  condemnation  of  certain  propositions  in  his 
work  on  astronomy  in  which  Copernicus  first  set 
forth  the  idea  of  the  universe  as  we  know  it  at 
present,  in  contradistinction  to  the  old  Ptolemaic 
system  of  astronomy,  would  seem  to  emphasize 
this  suspicion  of  unorthodox  thinking.  He  is 
rightly  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  great  pioneers 
of  our  modern  physical  science,  and,  as  it  is  gen- 
erally supposed  that  scientific  tendencies  lead 
away  from  religion,  there  are  doubtless  many 
who  look  upon  Copernicus  as  naturally  one  of 
the  leaders  in  this  rationalistic  movement.  It  is 
forgotten  that  scarcely  any  of  the  great  original 
thinkers  have  escaped  the  stigma  of  having  cer- 
tain propositions  in  some  of  their  books  con- 
demned, and  that  this  indeed  is  only  an  index  of 
the  fallibility  of  the  human  mind  and  of  the 
need  there  is  for  some  authoritative  teacher. 
The  sentences  in  Copernicus's  book  requiring 
correction  were  but  few,  and  were  rather  matters 
of  terminology  than  of  actual  perversion  of  ac- 
cepted teaching.  It  was  as  such  that  their  modi- 
fication was  suggested.     In  spite  of  this,  the  im- 

15 


l6  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

pression  remains  that  Copernicus  must  be  con- 
sidered as  a  rationalizing  scientist,  the  first  in  a 
long  roll  of  original  scientific  investigators  whose 
work  has  made  the  edifice  of  Christianity  totter 
by  removing  many  of  the  foundation-stones  of 
its  traditional  authority. 

fit  is  rather  surprising,  in  view  of  this  com- 
mon impression  with  regard  to  Copernicus,  to 
find  him,  according  to  recent  biographers,  a  faith- 
ful clergyman  in  honor  with  his  ecclesiastical 
superiors,  a  distinguished  physician  whose  chief 
patients  were  clerical  friends  of  prominent  posi- 
tion and  the  great  noblemen  of  his  day,  who  not 
only  retained  all  his  faith  and  reverence  for  the 
p.  Church,  but  seems  to  have  been  especially  relig- 
ious, a  devoted  adherent  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
Mother  of  God,  and  the  author  of  a  series  of 
poems  in  her  honor  that  constitute  a  distinct  con- 
tribution to  the  literature  of  his  time. 

All  this  should  not  be  astonishing,  however; 
for  in  the  list  of  the  churchmen  of  the  half  cen- 
tury just  before  the  great  religious  revolt  in  Ger- 
many are  to  be  found  some  of  the  best  known 
names  in  the  history  of  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  race.  This  statement  is  so  contrary 
to  the  usual  impression  that  obtains  in  regard  to 
the  character  of  that  period  as  to  be  a  distinct 
source  of  surprise  to  the  ordinary  reader  of  his- 
tory who  has  the  realization  of  its  truth  thrust 
upon  him  for  the  first  time.  Just  before  the  so- 
p  called  Reformation,  the  clergy  are  considered  to 
L  have  been  so  sunk  in  ignorance,  or  at  least  to 


COPERNICUS   AND    HIS    TIMES  1 7 

have  been  so  indifferent  to  intellectual  pursuits 
and  so  cramped  in  mind  as  regards  progress,  or 
so  timorous  because  of  inquisition  methods,  that_y 
no  great  advances  in  thought,  and  especially  none 
in  science,  could  possibly  be  looked  for  from 
them.  To  find,  then,  that  not  only  were  faithful 
churchmen  leaders  in  thought,  discoverers  in 
science,  organizers  in  education,  initiators  of  new- 
progress,  teachers  of  the  New  Learning,  but  that 
they  were  also  typical  representatives  and  yet 
prudent  directors  of  the  advancing  spirit  of  that 
truly  wonderful  time,  is  apt  to  make  us  think 
that  surely — as  the  Count  de  Maistre  said  one 
hundred  years  ago,  and  the  Cambridge  Modern 
History  repeats  at  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  when  treating  of  this  very  period —  • 
"history  has  been  a  conspiracy  against  the  truth." 
Not  quite  fifty  years  before  Luther's  move- 
ment of  protest  began — that  is,  in  1471 — there 
passed  away  in  a  little  town  in  the  Rhineland  a 
man  who  has  been  a  greater  spiritual  force  than 
perhaps  any  other  single  man  that  has  ever  ex- 
isted.  This  was  Thomas  a  Kempis,  a  product  of  J  r 
the  schools  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life, 
a  teaching  order  that  during  these  fifty  years 
before  the  Protestant  Revolution  had  over  ten 
thousand  pupils  in  its  schools  in  the  Rhineland 
and  the  Netherlands  alone.  As  among  these 
pupils  there  occur  such  names  as  Erasmus,  Nich- 
olas of  Cusa,  Agricola,  not  to  mention  many  less 
illustrious,  some  idea  of  this  old  teaching  insti- 
tution, that  has  been  very  aptly  compared  to  our 


l8  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

modern  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools,  can 
be  realized. 

Kempis  was  a  worthy  initiator  of  a  great  half 
century.  He  had  among  his  contemporaries,  or 
followers  in  the  next  generation,  such  men  as 
Grocyn,  Dean  Colet,  and  Linacre  in  England, 
Cardinal  Ximenes  in  Spain,  and  Copernicus  in 
Germany.  Considering  the  usual  impression  in 
this  matter  as  regards  the  lack  of  interest  at  Rome 
in  serious  study,  it  is  curiously  interesting  to 
realize  how  closely  these  great  scholars  and  think- 
ers were  in  touch  with  the  famous  popes  of  the 
f*  Renaissance  period.  The  second  half  of  the  six- 
teenth century  saw  the  elevation  to  the  papacy 
of  some  of  the  most  learned  and  worthy  men  that 
have  ever  occupied  the  Chair  of  Peter.  In  1447 
Nicholas  V  became  pope,  and  during  his  eight 
years  of  pontificate  initiated  a  movement  of  sym- 
pathy with  modern  art  and  letters  that  was  never 
to  be  extinguished.  To  him  more  than  to  any 
other  may  be  attributed  the  foundation  of  the 
Vatican  Library.  To  him  also  is  attributed  the 
famous  expression  that  "  no  art  can  be  too  lofty 
for  the  service  of  the  Church."  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Calixtus  III,  a  patron  of  learning,  who 
was  followed  by  Pius  II,  the  famous  yEneas  Syl- 
vius, one  of  the  greatest  scholars  and  most 
learned  men  of  his  day,  who  had  done  more  for 
the  spread  of  culture  and  of  education  in  the 
various  parts  of  Europe  than  perhaps  any  other 
alive  at  the  time. 

The  next  Pope,  Paul  II,  accomplished  much 


COPERNICUS    AND    HIS    TIMES  IO, 

during  a  period  of  great  danger  by  arousing  the 
Christian  opposition  to  the  Saracens.  His  en- 
couragement and  material  aid  to  the  Hungarians, 
who  were  making  a  bold  stand  against  the  Ori- 
ental invaders,  merit  for  him  a  place  in  the  role 
of  defenders  of  civilization.  To  him  is  due  the 
introduction  of  the  recently  discovered  art  of 
printing  and  its  installation  on  a  sumptuous  scale 
worthy  of  the  center  of  Christian  culture.  His 
successor,  Sixtus  IV,  deserves  the  title  of  the 
founder  of  modern  Rome.  Bridges,  aqueducts, 
public  buildings,  libraries,  churches — all  owe  to 
his  fostering  care  their  restoration  and  renewed 
foundation.  He  made  it  the  purpose  of  his  life 
to  attract  distinguished  humanistic  scholars  to 
his  capital,  and  Rome  became  the  metropolis  of 
culture  and  learning  as  well  as  the  mother  city 
of  Christendom. 

Under  such  popes  it  is  no  wonder  that  Rome 
and  the  cities  of  Italy  generally  became  the  homes 
of  art  and  culture,  centers  of  the  new  humanistic 
learning  and  the  shelters  of  the  scholars  of  the 
outer  world.  The  Italian  universities  entered  on 
a  period  of  intellectual  and  educational  develop- 
ment as  glorious  almost  as  the  art  movement 
that  characterized  the  time.  As  this  was  marked 
"by  the  work  of  such  men  as  that  universal  genius 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  of  Michael  Angelo,  poet, 
painter,  sculptor,  architect;  of  Raphael,  Titian, 
and  Correggio,  whose  contemporaries  were 
worthy  of  them  in  every  way,  some  idea  can  be 
attained  of  the  wonderful  era  that  developed.  No 


j 


20  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

wonder  scholars  in  every  department  of  learning 
flocked  to  Italy  for  inspiration  and  the  enthusiasm 
bred  of  scholarly  fellowship  in  such  an  environ- 
ment. From  England  came  men  like  Linacre, 
Selling,  Grocyn,  and  Dean  Colet;  Erasmus  came 
from  the  Netherlands,  and  Copernicus  from 
Poland.    Copernicus  there  obtained  that  scientific 

f  training  which  was  later  to  prove  so  fruitful  in 
his  practical  work  as  a  physician  and  in  his  sci- 
entific work  as  the  founder  of  modern  astronomy. 
It  may  be  as  well  to  say  at  the  beginning  that 
[  even  Copernicus  was  not  the  first  to  suggest  that 
the  earth  moved,  and  not  the  sun ;  and  that,  curi- 
ously enough,  his  anticipator  was  another  church- 
man, Nicholas  of  Cusa,  the  famous  Bishop  of 
Brixen.  Readers  of  Janssen's  History  of  the 
German  People  will  remember  that  the  distin- 
guished historian  introduces  his  monumental 
work  by  a  short  sketch  of  the  career  of  Cusanus,J 
as  he  is  called,  who  may  be  well  taken  as  the 
typical  pre-Reformation  scholar  and  clergyman. 
Cusa  wrote  in  a  manuscript — which  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  hospital  of  Cues,  or  Cusa — pub- 
lished for  the  first  time  by  Professor  Clemens  in 
1847 :  "  I  have  long  considered  that  this  earth 
can  not  be  fixed,  but  moves  as  do  the  other  stars 
— sed  movetur  ut  alice  stellce"     What  a  curious 

T  commentary  these  words,  written  more  than  half 
a  century  before  Galileo  was  born,  form  on  the 

[  famous  expression  so  often  quoted  because  sup- 
posed to  have  been  drawn  from  Galileo  by  the 
condemnation  of  his  doctrine  at  Rome :  E  pur  se 


COPERNICUS   AND    HIS    TIMES  21 

muove — "  and  yet  it  moves !"  Cusanus  was  a 
Cardinal,  the  personal  friend  of  three  popes,  and 
he  seems  to  have  had  no  hesitation  in  expressing 
his  opinion  in  the  matter.  In  the  same  manu- 
script the  Cardinal  adds :  "And  to  my  mind  the 
earth  revolves  upon  its  axis  once  in  a  day  and  a 
night."  Cusanus  was,  moreover,  one  of  the  most 
independent  thinkers  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  yet  he  was  intrusted  by  the  pope  about  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  with  the  refor- 
mation of  abuses  in  the  Church  in  Germany. 
The  pope  seems  to  have  been  glad  to  be  able  to 
secure  a  man  of  such  straightforward  ways  for 
his  reformatory  designs. 

The  ideas  of  Nicholas  of  Cusa  with  regard  to 
knowledge  and  the  liberty  of  judgment  in  things 
not  matters  of  faith  can  be  very  well  appreciated 
from  some  of  his  expressions.  "  To  know  and 
to  think/'  he  says  in  one  passage,  "  to  see  the 
truth  with  the  eye  of  the  mind  is  always  a  joy. 
The  older  a  man  grows,  the  greater  is  the  pleas- 
ure it  affords  him ;  and  the  more  he  devotes  him- 
self to  the  search  after  truth,  the  stronger  grows 
his  desire  of  possessing  it.  As  love  is  the  life  of 
the  heart,  so  is  the  endeavor  after  knowledge  and 
truth  the  life  of  the  mind.  In  the  midst  of  the 
movements  of  time,  of  the  daily  work  of  life,  of 
its  perplexities  and  contradictions,  we  should  lift 
our  gaze  fearlessly  to  the  clear  vault  of  heaven 
and  seek  ever  to  obtain  a  firmer  grasp  of,  and 
keener  insight  into,  the  origin  of  all  goodness  and 
duty,  the  capacities  of  our  own  hearts  and  minds, 


22  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

the  intellectual  fruits  of  mankind  throughout  the 
centuries,  and  the  wondrous  works  of  nature 
around  us ;  but  ever  remembering  that  in  humil- 
ity alone  lies  true  greatness,  and  that  knowledge 
and  wisdom  are  alone  profitable  in  so  far  as  our 
lives  are  governed  by  them."  1  It  is  no  wonder, 
then,  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  Copernicus  and 
his  great  work  in  astronomy,  nor  that  that  work 
should  be  accomplished  while  he  was  a  canon  of 
a  cathedral  and  for  a  time  the  vicar-general  of  a 
diocese. 

It  is  now  nearly  five  years  since  Father  Adolph 
Muller,  S.  J.,  professor  of  Astronomy  in  the  Pon- 
tifical Gregorian  University  of  Rome,  and  direc- 
tor of  a  private  observatory  on  the  Janiculum  in 
that  city,  wrote  his  historical  scientific  study 2 
of  the  great  founder  of  modern  astronomy. 
The  book  has  been  reviewed,  criticized  and  dis- 
cussed very  thoroughly  since  then,  and  has  been 
translated  into  several  languages.  The  latest 
translation  was  into  Italian,  the  work  of  Father 
Pietro  Mezzetti,  S.  J.,3  and  was  published  in 
Rome  at  the  end  of  1902 — having  had  the  benefit 

1  History  of  the  German  People  at  the  Close  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  By  Johannes  Janssen.  Translated  from 
the  German  by  M.  A.  Mitchell  and  A.  M.  Christie. 
Vol.   I,  p.   3. 

2  Nikolaus  Kopernicus,  Der  Altmeister  der  neueren 
Astronomie)  Ein  Lebens  und  Kultur  Bild.  Von  Adolf 
Muller,  S.  J. 

3  Professor  of  Astronomy  and  Physics  at  the  Pontif- 
ical Leonine  College  of  Anagni. 


COPERNICUS    AND   HIS    TIMES  23 


of  the  author's  revision.  The  historical  details, 
then,  of  Copernicus's  life  may  be  considered  to 
have  been  cast  into  definite  shape,  and  his  career 
may  be  appreciated  with  confidence  as  to  the  ab- 
solute accuracy  and  essential  significance  of  all 
its  features. 

Nicholas  Copernicus — to  give  him  the  Latin 
and  more  usual  form  of  his  name  —  was  the  \j/ 
youngest  of  four  children  of  Niclas  Copernigk, 
who  removed  from  Cracow  in  Poland  to  Thorn 
in  East  Prussia  (though  then  a  city  of  Poland), 
where  he  married  Barbara  Watzelrode,  a  daugh- 
ter of  one  of  the  oldest  and  wealthiest  families  of 
the  province.  His  mother's  brother,  after  hav- 
ing been  a  canon  for  many  years  in  the  cathedral' 
of  Frauenburg,  was  elected  Bishop  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Ermland.  The  future  astronomer  was 
jjporn  in  1473,  at  a  time  when  Thorn,  after  hav- 
ing been  for  over  two  hundred  years  under  the 
rule  of  the  Teutonic  Knights,  had  for  some 
seven  years  been  under  the  dominion  of  the  King 
of  Poland.  There  were  two  boys  and  two  girls 
in  the  family ;  and  their  fervent  Catholicity  can 
be  judged  from  the  fact  that  all  of  them,  parents 
and  children,  were  inscribed  among  the  members 
of  the  Third  Order  of  St.  Dominic.  Barbara, 
the  older  sister,  became  a  religious  in  the  Cister- 
cian Convent  of  Kulm,  of  which  her  aunt  Cath- 
erine was  abbess,  and  of  which  later  on  she  her- 
self became  abbess.  Andrew,  the  oldest  son,  be- 
came a  priest;  and  Nicholas,  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  at  least  assumed,  as  we  shall  see,  all  the 


24  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

obligations  of  the  ecclesiastical  life,  though  it  is 
not  certain  that  he  received  the  major  religious 
orders. 

Copernicus's  collegiate  education  was  obtained 
at  the  University  of  Cracow,  at  that  time  one  of 
the  most  important  seats  of  learning  in  Europe. 
The  five-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  founding 
of  this  University  was  celebrated  with  great 
pomp  only  a  few  years  ago.  Its  origin,  how- 
ever, dates  back  to  the  times  of  Casimir  the  Great, 
at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  or  the  beginning  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  Its  foundation  was  due 
to  the  same  spirit  of  enthusiasic  devotion  to 
letters  that  gave  us  all  the  other  great  univer- 
sities of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  original  in- 
stitution was  so  much  improved  by  Jagello,  King 
of  Poland,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, that  it  bears  his  name  and  is  known  as  the 
Jagellonian  University.  It  was  very  natural  for 
Copernicus  to  go  back  to  his  father's  native  city 
for  his  education;  but  his  ambitious  spirit  was 
not  content  with  the  opportunities  afforded  there. 
He  does  not  seem  to  have  taken  his  academic  de- 
grees, and  the  tradition  that  he  received  his  doc- 
torate in  medicine  at  the  University  of  Cracow 
cannot  be  substantiated  by  any  documentary  evi- 
dence. 

At  Cracow,  Copernicus  devoted  himself  mainly 
to  classical  studies,  though  his  interest  in  astron- 
omy seems  to  have  been  awakened  there.  In 
fact,  it  is  said  that  his  desire  to  be  able  to  read 
Ptolemy's  astronomy  in  the  original  Greek,  and 


COPERNICUS    AND    HIS    TIMES  25 

to  obtain  a  good  copy  of  it,  led  him  to  look  to 
Italy  for  his  further  education.  During  his  years 
at  Cracow,  however,  he  seems  to  have  made  nu- 
merous observations  in  astronomy,  as  most  of  the 
astronomical  data  in  his  books  are  found  reduced 
to  the  meridian'  of  Cracow.  The  observatory  of 
Frauenburg,  at  which  his  work  in  astronomy  in 
later  life  was  carried  on,  was  on  the  same  merid- 
ian; so  that  it  is  difficult  to  say,  as  have  some  of 
his  biographers,  that,  since  Cracow  was  the  cap- 
ital of  his  native  country,  motives  of  patriotism 
influenced  him  to  continue  his  observations  ac- 
cording to  this  same  meridian.  Copernicus  was 
anxious,  no  doubt,  to  come  in  contact  with  some 
of  the  great  astronomers  at  the  universities  of 
Italy,  whom  he  knew  by  reputation  and  whose 
work  was  attracting  attention  all  over  Europe  at 
that  time. 

How  faithfully  Copernicus  applied  himself  to 
his  classical  studies  can  be  best  appreciated  from 
some  Latin  poems  written  by  him  during  his  stu- 
dent days.  These  poems  are  an  index,  too,  of 
the  personal  character  of  the  man,  and  give  some 
interesting  hints  of  the  religious  side  of  his  char- 
acter. Altogether  there  are  seven  Latin  odes, 
each  ode  composed  of  seven  strophes.  The  seven 
odes  are  united  by  a  certain  community  of  in- 
terest or  succession  of  subjects.  All  of  them 
refer  to  the  history  of  the  Redeemer  either  in 
types  or  in  reality.  In  the  first  one  the  prophets 
prefigure  the  appearance  of  the  Saviour;  in  the 
second  the  patriarchs  sigh  for  His  coming;  the 


26  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

third  depicts  the  scene  of  the  Nativity  in  the 
Cave  of  Bethlehem ;  the  fourth  is  concerned  with 
the  Circumcision  and  the  imposition  of  the  Name 
chosen  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  the  fifth  treats  of  the 
Star  and  the  Magi  and  their  guidance  to  the 
Manger;  the  sixth  concerns  the  presentation  in 
the  Temple ;  and  the  seventh,  the  scene  in  which 
Jesus  at  the  age  of  twelve  disputes  with  the  doc- 
tors in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem. 

Copernicus's  recent  biographers  have  called 
attention  particularly  to  the  poetical  beauties  with 
which  he  surrounds  every  mention  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  and  her  qualities.  As  is  evident  even 
from  our  brief  resume  of  the  subjects  of  the 
odes,  the  themes  selected  are  just  those  in  which 
the  special  devotion  of  the  writer  to  the  Mother 
of  the  Saviour  could  be  very  well  brought  out. 
There  are,  besides,  a  number  of  astronomical 
allusions  which  stamp  the  poems  as  the  work  of 
Copernicus,  and  which  have  been  sufficient  to 
defend  their  authenticity  against  the  attacks  made 
by  certain  critics,  who  tried  to  point  out  how 
different  was  the  style  from  that  of  Copernicus's 
later  years  in  his  scientific  writings.  The  tradi- 
tion of  authorship  is,  however,  too  well  estab- 
lished on  other  grounds  to  be  disturbed  by  criti- 
cism of  this  sort.  The  poems  were  dedicated  to 
the  Pope.  In  writing  poetry  Copernicus  was 
only  doing  what  Tycho  Brahe  and  Kepler,  his 
great  successors  in  astronomy,  did  after  him; 
and  the  argument  with  regard  to  the  difference 
of  style  in  the  two  kinds  of  writings  would  hold 
also  as  regards  these  authors. 


COPERNICUS    AND    HIS    TIMES  27 

Copernicus's  years  as  a  boy  and  man — that  is, 
up  to  the  age  of  thirty-five — corresponded  with 
a  time  of  great  intellectual  activity  in  Europe. 
This  fact  is  not  as  generally  recognized  as  it 
should  be,  for  intellectual  activity  is  supposed  to 
have  awakened  after  the  so-called  Reformation. 
During  the  years  from  1472  to  1506,  however, 
there  were  founded  in  Germany  alone  no  less 
than  six  universities :  those  of  Ingolstadt,  Treves, 
Tubingen,  Mentz,  Wittenberg,  and  Frankfort- 
on-the-Oder.  These  were  not  by  any  means  the 
first  great  institutions  of  learning  that  arose  in 
Germany.  The  universities  of  Prague  and 
Vienna  were  more  than  a  century  old,  and,  with 
Heidelberg,  Cologne,  Erfurt,  Leipsic,  and  Ros- 
tock, besides  Greifswald  and  Freiburg,  founded 
about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  had 
reached  a  high  state  of  development,  and  con- 
tained larger  numbers  of  students,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, than  these  same  institutions  have  ever 
had  down  to  our  own  day.  In  most  cases  their 
charters  were  derived  from  the  pope;  and  most 
of  the  universities  were  actually  recognized  as 
ecclesiastical  institutions,  in  the  sense  that  their 
officials  held  ecclesiastical  authority. 

At  this  time — the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century — it  was  not 
unusual  for  students,  in  their  enthusiasm  for 
learning,  to  attempt  to  exhaust  nearly  the  whole 
round  of  university  studies.  Medicine  seems  to 
have  been  a  favorite  subject  with  scholars  who 
were  widely  interested  in  knowledge  for  its  own 


28  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

sake.  Almost  at  the  same  time  that  Copernicus 
was  studying  in  Italy,  the  distinguished  Eng- 
lish Greek  scholar,  Linacre,  was  also  engaged 
in  what  would  now  be  called  post-graduate 
work  at  various  Italian  universities,  and  in 
the  household  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  at 
Florence,  with  whose  son — so  much  did  Lorenzo 
think  of  him — he  was  allowed  to  study  Greek. 
Linacre  (as  will  be  seen  more  at  length  in  the 
sketch  of  his  life  in  this  volume),  besides  being 
the  greatest  Greek  scholar  of  his  time,  the  friend 
later  of  More  and  Colet  and  Erasmus  in  London, 
was  also  the  greatest  physician  in  England. 

To  those  familiar  with  the  times,  it  may  be  a 
source  of  surprise  to  think  of  Copernicus,  inter- 
ested as  we  know  him  to  have  been  in  literature 
and  devoted  so  cordially  to  astronomy,  yet  tak- 
ing up  medicine  as  a  profession.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  led  to  do  so  by  his  dis- 
tinguished teacher,  Novara,  who  realized  the 
talent  of  his  Polish  pupil  for  mathematics  and 
astronomy  and  yet  felt  that  he  should  have  some 
profession  in  life.  A  century  ago  Coleridge,  the 
English  writer,  said  that  a  literary  man  should 
have  some  other  occupation.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  improved  upon  this  by  adding:  "And,  as 
far  as  possible,  he  should  confine  himself  to  the 
other  occupation."  Novara  seems  to  have  real- 
ized that  Copernicus  might  be  under  the  neces- 
sity of  knowing  how  to  do  something  else  be- 
sides making  astronomical  observations,  in  order 
to  gain  his  living;  and  as  medicine  was  satisfy- 


COPERNICUS   AND    HIS   TIMES  20, 

ingly  scientific,  the  old  teacher  suggested  his  tak- 
ing it  up  as  a  profession.  Copernicus  made  his 
medical  studies  in  Ferrara  and  Padua,  and  ob- 
tained his  doctorate  with  honors  from  Ferrara. 

Copernicus  seems  to  have  taken  up  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession  seriously,  and  to  have  per- 
severed in  it  to  the  end  of  his  life.  His  biog- 
raphers say  that  in  the  exercise  of  his  professional 
duties  he  was  animated  by  the  spirit  of  a  person 
who  had  devoted  himself  to  the  ecclesiastical  life. 
While  he  did  not  publicly  practise  his  profession, 
he  was  ever  ready  to  assist  the  poor ;  and  he  also 
acquired  great  reputation  in  the  surrounding 
country  for  his  medical  attendance  upon  clerics 
of  all  ranks.  This  continued  to  be  the  case,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  after  the  death  of  his 
uncle  his  mother  inherited  considerable  wealth, 
and  the  family  circumstances  changed  so  much 
that  he  might  well  have  given  up  any  labors  that 
were  meant  only  to  add  to  his  income.  In  a 
word,  he  seems  to  have  had  a  sincere  interest  in 
his  professional  work,  and  to  have  continued  its 
exercise  because  of  the  opportunities  it  afforded 
for  the  satisfaction  of  a  mind  devoted  to  scien- 
tific research. 

Copernicus  acquired  considerable  reputation 
by  his  medical  services.  His  friend  Giese  speaks 
of  him  as  a  very  skilful  physician,  and  even  calls 
him  a  second  iEsculapius.  Maurice  Ferber,  who 
became  Bishop  of  Ermland  in  1523,  suffered 
from  a  severe  chronic  illness  that  began  about 
1529.     He  obtained  permission  from  the  canons 


30  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

of  the  cathedral  to  have  Doctor  Copernicus, 
whose  ability  and  zeal  he  never  ceased  to  praise, 
to  come  from  the  cathedral  town  where  he  ordi- 
narily resided  to  Heilsburg,  in  order  to  have 
him  near  him.  Bishop  Ferber's  successor,  Dan- 
tisco,  also  secured  Copernicus's  aid  in  a  severe 
illness,  and  declared  that  his  restoration  to  health 
was  mainly  due  to  the  efforts  of  his  learned 
physician.  Giese  was  so  confident  of  the  Doc- 
tor's skill  that  when  he  became  Bishop  of  Kulm 
and  on  one  of  his  episcopal  visitations  fell  ill  at 
a  considerable  distance  from  Copernicus's  place 
of  residence,  he  insisted  on  having  the  astron- 
omer doctor  brought  to  take  care  of  him. 

In  1 541  Duke  Albert  of  Prussia  became  very 
much  worried  over  the  illness  of  one  of  his  most 
trusted  counsellors.  In  his  distress  he  had  re- 
course to  Copernicus,  and  his  letter  asking  the 
Canon  of  the  Cathedral  of  Frauenburg-  to  come 
to  attend  the  patient  is  still  extant.  He  says  that 
the  cure  of  the  illness  is  "  very  much  at  his 
heart " ;  and,  as  every  other  means  has  failed, 
he  hopes  Copernicus  will  do  what  he  can  for  the 
assistance  of  his  faithful  and  valued  counsellor. 
Copernicus  yielded  to  the  request,  and  the  coun- 
sellor began  to  improve  shortly  after  his  arrival. 
At  the  end  of  some  weeks  the  Duke  wrote  again 
to  the  canons  of  the  cathedral  asking  that  the 
leave  of  absence  granted  to  Copernicus  should  be 
extended  in  order  to  enable  him  to  complete  the 
cure  which  had  been  so  happily  begun.  In  this 
second  letter  the  Duke  talks  of  Copernicus  as  a 


COPERNICUS   AND    HIS   TIMES  3 1 

most  skilful  and  learned  physician.  At  the  end 
of  the  month  there  is  a  third  letter  from  the 
Duke,  in  which  he  thanks  all  the  canons  of  the 
cathedral  for  their  goodness  in  having  granted 
the  desired  permission,  and  he  adds  that  he  shall 
ever  feel  under  obligations  "  for  the  assistance 
rendered  by  that  very  worthy  and  excellent  physi- 
cian, Nicholas  Copernicus,  a  doctor  who  is  de- 
serving of  all  honor."  Not  long  afterward, 
when  Copernicus's  book  on  astronomy  was  pub- 
lished, a  copy  of  it  was  sent  to  the  Duke,  and  he 
replied  that  he  was  deeply  grateful  for  it,  and 
that  he  should  always  preserve  it  as  a  souvenir 
of  the  most  learned  and  gentlest  of  men. 

There  are  a  number  of  notes  on  the  art  of 
medicine  made  by  Copernicus  in  the  books  of  the 
cathedral  library  at  Frauenburg.  They  serve  to 
show  how  faithful  a  student  he  was,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  give  an  idea  of  the  independent 
habit  of  mind  which  he  brought  to  the  investiga- 
tion of  medicine  as  well  as  to  the  study  of  astron- 
omy. Unfortunately,  these  have  not  as  yet  found 
an  editor;  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  shall 
soon  know  more  of  the  medical  thinking  of  a 
man  over  whose  mind  tradition,  in  the  unworthier 
sense  of  that  word,  exercised  so  little  influence. 

In  1530  Copernicus  wrote  a  short  prelude  to 
the  longer  work  on  astronomy  which  he  was  to 
publish  later.  The  propositions  contained  in  this 
work  show  how  far  he  had  advanced  on  the  road 
to  his  ultimate  discovery.  After  a  few  words  of 
introduction,  the  following  seven  axioms  are  laid 
down : — 


32  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

1.  The  celestial  spheres  and  their  orbits  have 
not  a  single  center. 

2.  The  center  of  the  earth  is  not  the  center  of 
the  universe,  but  only  the  center  of  gravity  and 
of  the  moon's  orbit. 

3.  The  planes  of  the  orbits  lie  around  the  sun, 
which  may  be  considered  as  the  center  of  the 
universe. 

4.  The  distance  from  the  earth  to  the  sun 
compared  with  that  from  the  earth  to  the  fixed 
stars  is  extremely  small. 

5.  The  daily  motion  of  the  heavenly  sphere  is 
apparent — that  is,  it  is  an  effect  of  the  rotary 
motion  of  the  earth  upon  it  axis. 

6.  The  apparent  motions  of  the  moon  and  of 
the  sun  are  so  different  because  of  the  effect  pro- 
duced by  the  motion  of  the  earth. 

7.  The  movements  of  the  earth  account  for  the 
apparent  retrograde  motion  and  other  irregular- 
ities of  the  movements  of  the  planets.  It  is 
enough  to  assume  that  the  earth  alone  moves,  in 
order  to  explain  all  the  other  movements  ob- 
served in  the  heavens. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  one  of  his  bishop-friends, 
Frisio,  writing  to  another  bishop-friend,  Dan- 
tisco,  said :  "  If  Copernicus  succeeds  in  demon- 
strating the  truth  of  his  thesis — and  we  may  well 
consider  that  he  will  from  this  prelude — he  will 
give  us  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth/'  This 
shorter  exposition  of  Copernicus's  views  was 
found  in  manuscript  in  the  imperial  library  in 
Vienna  only  about  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 


COPERNICUS   AND    HIS   TIMES  33 

It  is  mentioned  by  Tycho  Brahe  in  one  of  his 
works  on  astronomy  in  which  he  reviews  the 
various  contemporary  advances  made  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  heavens. 

The  publication  of  Copernicus's  great  work, 
"  De  Revolutionibus  Orbium  Celestium,"  was 
delayed  until  he  was  advanced  in  years,  because 
his  astronomical  opinions  were  constantly  pro- 
gressing; and,  with  the  patience  of  true  genius, 
he  was  not  satisfied  with  anything  less  than  the 
perfect  expression  of  truth  as  he  saw  it.  It  has 
sometimes  been  said  that  it  was  delayed  because 
Copernicus  feared  the  storm  of  religious  perse- 
cution which  he  foresaw  it  would  surely  arouse. 
How  utterly  without  foundation  is  this  pretence, 
which  has  unfortunately  crept  into  serious  his- 
tory, can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  Pope  Paul 
III  accepted  the  dedication  of  the  work;  and  of 
the  twelve  popes  who  immediately  followed  Paul 
not  one  even  thought  of  proceeding  against 
Copernicus's  work.  His  teaching  was  never 
questioned  by  any  of  the  Roman  Congregations 
for  nearly  one  hundred  years  after  his  death. 
Galileo's  injudicous  insistence  in  his  presenta- 
tion of  Copernicus's  doctrine,  on  the  novelties 
of  opinion  that  controverted  long-established 
beliefs,  was .  then  responsible  for  the  condem- 
nation by  the  Congregation  of  the  Index; 
and,  as  we  shall  see,  this  was  not  absolute,  but 
only  required  that  certain  passages  should  be" 
corrected.  The  corrections  demanded  were  un- 
important   as    regards    the    actual    science,    and 


34  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

merely  insisted  that  Copernicus's  teaching  was 
hypothesis  and  not  yet  actual  demonstration. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  after  all,  that  the 
reasons  advanced  by  Copernicus  for  his  idea  of 
the  movements  of  the  planets  were  not  supported 
by  any  absolute  demonstration,  but  only  by  rea- 
sons from  analogy.  Nearly  a  hundred  years 
later  than  his  time,  even  after  the  first  discoveries 
had  been  made  by  the  newly  constructed  tele- 
scopes, in  Galileo's  day,  there  was  no  absolute 
proof  of  the  true  system  of  the  heavens.  The 
famous  Jesuit  astronomer,  Father  Secchi,  says 
the  reasons  adduced  by  Galileo  were  no  real 
proofs :  they  were  only  certain  analogies,  and  by 
no  means  excluded  the  possibility  of  the  contrary 
propositions  with  regard  to  the  movements  of 
the  heavens  being  true.  "  None  of  the  real 
proofs  for  the  earth's  rotation  upon  its  axis  were 
known  at  the  time  of  Galileo,  nor  were  there 
direct  conclusive  arguments  for  the  earth's  mov- 
ing around  the  sun."  Even  Galileo  himself  con- 
-^>  fessed  that  he  had  not  any  strict  demonstration 
of  his  views,  such  as  Cardinal  Bellarmine  re- 
quested. He  wrote  to  the  Cardinal,  "  The  sys- 
tem seems  to  be  true;"  and  he  gave  as  a  reason 
that  it  corresponded  to  the  phenomena. 

According  to  the  astronomers  of  the  time, 
however,  the  old  Ptolemaic  system,  in  the  shape 
in  which  it  was  explained  by  the  Danish  astron- 
omer Tycho  Brahe,  who  was  acknowledged  as 
the  greatest  of  European  astronomers,  appeared 
to  give  quite  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 


COPERNICUS   AND    HIS    TIMES  35 

phenomena  observed.  The  English  philosopher, 
Lord  Bacon,  more  than  a  decade  after  Galileo's 
announcement,  considered  that  there  were  cer- 
tain phenomena  in  nature  contrary  to  the  Coper- 
nican  theory,  and  so  he  rejected  it  altogether. 
This  was  within  a  few  years  of  the  condemna- 
tion by  the  Congregation  at  Rome.  As  pointed 
out  by  Father  Heinzle,  S.  J.,  in  his  article  on 
Galileo  in  the  "Catholic  World"  for  1887, 
"  science  was  so  far  from  determining  the  ques- 
tion of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  either  the  Ptolemaic 
or  the  Copernican  system  that  shortly  before 
1633,  the  year  of  Galileo's  condemnation,  a  num- 
"ber  of  savants,  such  as  Fromond  in  Louvain, 
Morin  in  Paris,  Berigard  in  Pisa,  Bartolinus  in 
Copenhagen,  and  Scheiner  in  Rome,  wrote 
against  Copernicanism." 

As  we  have  said,  Copernicus's  book  was  not 
condemned  unconditionally  by  the  Roman  author- 
ities, but  only  until  it  should  be  corrected.  This 
assured  protection  to  the  principal  part  of  the 
work,  and  the  warning  issued  by  the  Roman 
Congregation  in  the  year  1820  particularizes  the 
details  that  had  to  be  corrected.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  whenever  Copernicus  is  spoken  of  in 
this  Monitum  it  is  always  in  flattering  terms  as 
a  "  noble  astrologer  " — the  word  astrologer  hav- 
ing at  that  time  no  unworthy  meaning.  The 
whole  work  is  praised  and  its  scientific  quality 
acknowledged. 

The  passages  requiring  correction  were  not 
many.     In  the  first  book,  at  the  beginning  of  the 


> 


36  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN   SCIENCE 

fifth  chapter,  Copernicus  made  the  declaration 
that  "  the  immobility  of  the  earth  was  not  a  de- 
cided question,  but  was  still  open  to  discussion." 
In  place  of  these  words  it  was  suggested  that  the 
following  should  be  inserted :  "  In  order  to  ex- 
plain the  apparent  motions  of  the  celestial  bodies, 
it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  we  admit 
that  the  earth  occupies  a  place  in  the  middle  of 
the  heavens  or  not." 

In  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  first  book,  Coper- 
nicus said :  "  Why,  then,  this  repugnance  to  con- 
cede to  our  globe  its  own  movement  as  natural 
to  it  as  is  its  spherical  form?  Why  prefer  to 
make  the  whole  heavens  revolve  around  it,  with 
the  great  danger  of  disturbance  that  would  re- 
sult, instead  of  explaining  all  these  apparent 
movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies  by  the  real 
rotation  of  the  earth,  according  to  the  words  of 
^neas,  '  We  are  carried  from  the  port,  and  the 
land  and  the  cities  recede  '  ?"  This  passage  was 
to  be  modified  as  follows :  "  Why  not,  then,  ad- 
mit a  certain  mobility  of  the  earth  corresponding 
to  its  form,  since  the  whole  universe  of  which 
we  know  the  bounds  is  moved,  producing  ap- 
pearances which  recall  to  the  mind  the  well- 
known  saying  of  ^Eneas  in  Virgil,  '  The  land 
and  the  cities  recede  '  ?" 

Toward  the  end  of  the  same  chapter  Coper- 
nicus, continuing  the  same  train  of  thought,  says : 
"  I  do  not  fear  to  add  that  it  is  incomparably 
more  unreasonable  to  make  the  immense  vault 
of  the  heavens  revolve  than  to  admit  the  revolu- 


COPERNICUS    AND    HIS    TIMES  37 


tion  of  our  little  terrestrial  globe."  This  pas- 
sage was  to  be  modified  as  follows :  "  In  one 
case  as  well  as  in  the  other — that  is,  whether  we 
admit  the  rotation  of  the  earth  or  that  of  the 
heavenly  spheres — we  encounter  the  same  diffi- 
culties." 

The  ninth  chapter  of  the  first  book  begins  with 
these  words :  "  There  being  no  difficulty  in  ad- 
mitting, then,  the  mobility  of  the  earth,  let  us 
proceed  to  see  whether  it  has  one  or  a  number 
of  movements,  and  whether,  therefore,  our  earth 
is  a  simple  planet  like  the  other  planets."  The 
following  words  were  to  be  substituted :  "  Sup- 
posing, then,  that  the  earth  does  move,  it  is 
necessary  to  examine  whether  this  movement  is 
multiple  or  not." 

Toward  the  middle  of  the  tenth  chapter  Coper- 
nicus declares :  "  I  do  not  hesitate  to  defend  the 
proposition  that  the  earth,  accompanied  by  the 
moon,  moves  around  the  sun ;"  while  the  word- 
ing of  this  proposition  had  to  be  changed  so  as 
to  substitute  the  term  "  admit "  for  "  defend." 
The  title  of  the  eleventh  chapter,  "  Demonstra- 
tion of  the  Triple  Movement  of  the  Earth,"  was 
modified  to  read  as  follows :  "  The  Hypothesis 
of  the  Triple  Movement  of  the  Earth,  and-  the 
Reasons  Therefor."  The  title  of  the  twentieth 
chapter  of  the  fourth  book  originally  read :  "  On 
the  Size  of  the  Three  Stars  [Sidera],  the  sun, 
the  moon,  and  the  earth."  The  word  "  stars  " 
was  removed  from  this  title,  the  earth  not  being 
considered  as  a  star.     The  concluding  words  of 


38  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

the  tenth  chapter  of  the  first  book,  "  So  great  is 
the  magnificent  work  of  the  Omnipotent  Artif- 
icer," had  to  be  cancelled,  because  they  expressed 
an  assurance  of  the  truth  of  his  system  not  war- 
ranted by  knowledge.  With  these  few  unim- 
portant changes,  any  one  might  read  and  study 
Copernicus's  work  with  perfect  freedom. 

Traditions  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding, 
Galileo,  because  of  the  friendship  and  encourage- 
ment of  the  churchmen  in  Italy,  had  been  placed 
in  conditions  eminently  suited  for  study  and  in- 
vestigation. Several  popes  and  a  number  of 
prominent  ecclesiastics  were  his  constant  friends 
and  patrons.  The  perpetual  secretary  of  the 
Paris  Academy  of  Sciences,  M.  Bertrand,  him- 
self a  great  mathematician  and  historian,  de- 
clares that  the  long  life  of  Galileo  was  one  of  the 
most  enviable  that  is  recorded  in  the  history  of 
science.  "  The  tale  of  his  misfortunes  has  con- 
firmed the  triumph  of  the  truth  for  which  he 
suffered.  Let  us  tell  the  whole  truth.  This 
great  lesson  was  learned  without  any  profound 
sorrow  to  Galileo ;  and  his  long  life,  considered 
as  a  whole,  was  one  of  the  most  serene  and  en- 
viable in  the  history  of  science." 

Copernicus,  like  Galileo,  had  clerical  friends 
to  thank  for  an  environment  that  proved  the 
greatest  possible  aid  to  his  scientific  work.  His 
position  as  Canon  of  the  Cathedral  of  Frauen- 
burg  provided  him  with  learned  leisure,  while 
his  clerical  friends  took  just  enough  interest  in 
his  investigations  and  the  preliminary  announce- 


COPERNICUS   AND    HIS    TIMES  39 

merits  of  his  discoveries  to  make  his  pursuit  of 
astronomical  studies  to  some  definite  conclusion 
a  worthy  aim  in  life.  It  was  this  assistance  that 
enabled  him  to  publish  his  book  eventually  and 
bring  his  great  theory  before  the  world. 

Copernicus,  far  from  having  any  leanings  to- 
ward the  so-called  "  reform  "  movement  (as  has 
often  been  asserted),  was   evidently  a  staunch 
supporter    of    his    friend    and    patron    Bishop 
Maurice  Ferber,  of  Ermland,  who  kept  his  see 
loyal  to  Rome  at  a  time  when  the  secularization 
of  the  Teutonic  order  and  the  falling  awa)^  of 
many  bishops  all  around  him  make  his  position 
as  a  faithful  son  of  the  Church  and  that  of  his 
diocese  noteworthy  in  the  history  of  that  time 
and  place.     It  may  well  be  said  that  under  less 
favorable    conditions    Copernicus's    work   might 
never  have  been  finished.     As  it  was,  his  book 
met  with  great  opposition  from  the  Reformers, 
but  remained  absolutely  acceptable  even  to  the 
most  rigorous  churchmen  until  Galileo's  unfor- 
tunate insistence  on  the  points  of  it  that  were   ( 
opposed  to  generally  accepted  theories.  ^U 

During  all  his  long  life  Copernicus  remained 
one  of  the  simplest  of  men.  Genius  as  he  was, 
he  could  not  have  failed  to  realize  how  great  was 
the  significance  of  the  discoveries  he  had  made 
in  astronomy.  In  spite  of  this  he  continued  to 
exercise  during  a  long  career  the  simple  duties 
of  his  post  as  Canon  of  the  Cathedral  of  Frauen- 
berg,  nor  did  he  fail  to  give  such  time  as  was 
asked  of  him  for  the  medical  treatment  of  the 


40  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

poor  or  of  his  friends,  the  ecclesiastics  of  the 
neighborhood.  These  duties — as  he  seems  to 
have  considered  them — must  have  taken  many 
precious  hours  from  his  studies,  but  they  were 
given  unstintingly.  When  he  came  to  die,  his 
humility  was  even  more  prominent  than  during 
life.  It  was  at  his  own  request  that  there  was 
graven  upon  his  tombstone  simply  the  prayer, 
"  I  ask  not  the  grace  accorded  to  Paul,  not  that 
given  to  Peter :  give  me  only  the  favor  Thou 
didst  show  to  the  thief  on  the  cross."  There  is 
perhaps  no  better  example  in  all  the  world  of  the 
simplicity  of  true  genius  nor  any  better  example 
of  how  sublimely  religious  may  be  the  soul  that 
has  far  transcended  the  bounds  of  the  scientific 
knowledge  of  its  own  day. 

The  greatness  of  Copernicus's  life-work  can 
best  be  realized  from  the  extent  to  which  he 
surpassed  even  well-known  contemporaries  in 
astronomy  and  from  his  practical  anticipation  of 
the  opinions  of  some  of  his  greatest  successors. 
Even  Tycho  Brahe,  important  though  he  is  in 
the  history  of  astronomical  science,  taught  many 
years  after  Copernicus's  death  the  doctrine  that 
the  earth  is  the  center  of  the  universe.  Newton 
had  in  Copernicus  a  precursor  who  divined  the 
theory  of  universal  gravitation;  and  even  Kep- 
ler's great  laws,  especially  the  elliptical  form  of 
the  orbits  of  the  planets,  are  at  least  hinted  at 
in  Copernicus's  writings.  He  is  certainly  one  of 
the  most  original  geniuses  of  all  times ;  and  it  is 
interesting  to  find  that  the  completeness  of  his 


COPERNICUS   AND   HIS   TIMES  41 

scholarly  career,  far  from  being  rendered  abor- 
tive by  friction  with  ecclesiastical  superiors,  as 
we  might  imagine  probable  from  the  traditions 
that  hang  around  his  name,  was  rather  made 
possible  by  the  sympathy  and  encouragement  of 
clerical  friends  and  Church  authorities.  Coper- 
nicus, the  scholar,  astronomer,  physician,  and 
clergyman,  is  a  type  of  the  eve  of  the  Reforma- 
tion period,  and  his  life  is  the  best  possible  refu- 
tation of  the  slanders  with  regard  to  the  unpro- 
gressiveness  of  the  Church  and  churchmen  of 
that  epoch  which  have  unfortunately  been  only 
too  common  in  the  histories  of  the  time. 


III. 

BASIL  VALENTINE,    FOUNDER  OF 
MODERN  CHEMISTRY. 


LET  us,  then,  banish  into  the 
world  of  fiction  that  affirmation 
so  long  repeated  by  foolish  credulity 
which  made  monasteries  an  asylum 
for  indolence  and  incapacity,  for  mis- 
anthropy and  pusillanimity,  for  feeble 
and  melancholic  temperaments,  and 
for  men  who  were  no  longer  fit  to 
serve  society  in  the  world.  Monas- 
teries were  never  intended  to  collect 
the  invalids  of  the  world.  It  was  not 
the  sick  souls,  but  on  the  contrary 
the  most  vigorous  and  healthful  the 
human  race  has  ever  produced,  who 
presented   themselves  in   crowds    to 

fill     them. — MONTALEMBERT,      Monks 

of  the  West. 


III. 


BASIL  VALENTINE,  FOUNDER  OF  MODERN 
CHEMISTRY. 

THE  Protestant  tradition  which  presumes 
a  priori  that  no  good  can  possibly  have 
come  out  of  the  Nazareth  of  the  times  before  the 
Reformation,  and  especially  the  immediately  pre- 
ceding century,  has  served  to  obscure  to  an  un- 
fortunate degree  the  history  of  several  hundred 
years  extremely  important  in  every  department 
of  education.  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  those 
unfamiliar  with  the  period,  it  is  in  that  depart- 
ment which  is  supposed  to  be  so  typically  mod- 
ern— the  physical  sciences — that  this  neglect  is 
most  serious.  Such  a  hold  has  this  Portestant 
tradition  on  even  educated  minds  that  it  is  a 
source  of  great  surprise  to  most  people  to  be  told 
that  there  were  in  many  parts  of  Europe  original 
observers  in  the  physical  sciences  all  during  the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries  who 
were  doing  ground-breaking  work  of  the  highest 
value,  work  that  was  destined  to  mean  much  for 
the  development  of  modern  science.  Speculations 
and  experiments  with  regard  to  the  philosopher's 
stone  and  the  transmutation  of  metals  are  sup- 
posed to  fill  up  all  the  interests  of  the  alchemists 
of  those  days.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however, 
men  were  making  original  observations  of  very 

45 


46  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

profound  significance,  and  these  were  considered 
so  valuable  by  their  contemporaries  that,  though 
printing  had  not  yet  been  invented,  even  the  im- 
mense labor  involved  in  copying  large  folio  vol- 
umes by  hand  did  not  suffice  to  deter  them  from 
multiplying  the  writings  of  these  men  and  thus 
preserving  them  for  future  generations,  until  the 
printing-press  came  to  perpetuate  them. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century, 
with  some  of  the  supposed  foundations  of  mod- 
ern chemistry  crumbling  to  pieces  under  the  in- 
fluences of  the  peculiarly  active  light  thrown 
upon  older  chemical  theories  by  the  discovery  of 
radium  and  the  radio-active  elements  generally, 
there  is  a  reawakening  of  interest  in  some  of 
the  old-time  chemical  observers  whose  work  used 
to  be  laughed  at  as  so  unscientific  and  whose 
theory  of  the  transmutation  of  elements  into  one 
another  was  considered  so  absurd.  The  idea 
that  it  would  be  impossible  under  any  circum- 
stances to  convert  one  element  into  another  be- 
longs entirely  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Even 
so  distinguished  a  mind  as  that  of  Newton,  in 
the  preceding  century,  could  not  bring  itself  to 
acknowledge  the  modern  supposition  of  the  ab- 
surdity of  metallic  transformation,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  believed  very  firmly  in  this  as  a  basic 
chemical  principle  and  confessed  that  it  might  be 
expected  to  occur  at  any  time.  He  had  seen 
specimens  of  gold  ores  in  connexion  with  metal- 
lic copper,  and  had  concluded  that  this  was  a 
manifestation  of  the  natural  transformation  of 
one  of  these  yellow  metals  into  the  other. 


BASIL    VALENTINE  47 

With  the  discovery  that  radium  transforms 
itself  into  helium,  and  that  indeed  all  the  so- 
called  radio-activities  of  the  very  heavy  metals 
are  probably  due  to  a  natural  transmutation  pro- 
cess constantly  at  work,  the  ideas  of  the  older 
chemists  cease  entirely  to  be  a  subject  for  amuse- 
ment. The  physical  chemists  of  the  present  day 
are  very  ready  to  admit  that  the  old  teaching  of 
the  absolute  independence  of  something  over 
seventy  elements  is  no  longer  tenable,  except  as  a 
working  hypothesis.  The  doctrine  of  matter  and 
form  taught  for  so  many  centuries  by  the  scholas- 
tic philosophers  which  proclaimed  that  all  matter 
is  composed  of  two  principles,  an  underlying 
material  substratum  and  a  dynamic  or  informing 
principle,  has  now  more  acknowledged  veri- 
similitude, or  lies  at  least  closer  to  the  generally 
accepted  ideas  of  the  most  progressive  scientists, 
than  it  has  at  any  time  for  the  last  two  or  three 
centuries.  Not  only  the  great  physicists,  but  also 
the  great  chemists,  are  speculating  along  lines 
that  suggest  the  existence  of  but  one  form  of 
matter,  modified  according  to  the  energies  that 
it  possesses  under  a  varying  physical  and  chem- 
ical environment.  This  is,  after  all,  only  a  re- 
statement in  modern  terms  of  the  teaching  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Aquin  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  there  should  be 
a  reawakening  of  interest  in  the  lives  of  some  of 
the  men  who,  dominated  by  the  earlier  scholastic 
ideas  and  by  the  tradition  of  the  possibility  of 
finding   the   philosopher's    stone,    which    would 


48  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

transmute  the  baser  metals  into  the  precious 
metals,  devoted  themselves  with  quite  as  much 
zeal  as  any  modern  chemist  to  the  observation  of 
chemical  phenomena.  One  of  the  most  interest- 
ing of  these — indeed  he  might  well  be  said  to  be 
the  greatest  of  the  alchemists — is  the  man  whose 
only  name  that  we  know  is  that  which  appears 
on  a  series  of  manuscripts  written  in  the  High 
German  dialect  of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  That 
name  is  Basil  Valentine,  and  the  writer,  accord- 
ing to  the  best  historical  traditions,  was  a  Bene- 
dictine monk.  The  name  Basil  Valentine  may 
only  have  been  a  pseudonym,  for  it  has  been  im- 
possible to  trace  it  among  the  records  of  the 
monasteries  of  the  time.  That  the  writer  was  a 
monk  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt,  for  his  writ- 
ings in  manuscript  and  printed-  form  began  to 
have  their  vogue  at  a  time  when  there  was  little 
likelihood  of  their  being  attributed  to  a  monk 
unless  an  indubitable  tradition  connected  them 
with  some  monastery. 

This  Basil  Valentine  (to  accept  the  only  name 
we  have),  as  we  can  judge  very  well  from  his 
writings,  eminently  deserves  the  designation  of 
the  last  of  the  alchemists  and  the  first  of  the 
chemists.  There  is  practically  a  universal  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  now  that  he  deserves  also  the 
title  of  Founder  of  Modern  Chemistry,  not  only 
because  of  the  value  of  the  observations  con- 
tained in  his  writings,  but  also  because  of  the 
fact  that  they  proved  so  suggestive  to  certain 


BASIL    VALENTINE  49 

scientific  geniuses  during  the  century  succeeding 
Valentine's  life.  Almost  more  than  to  have 
added  to  the  precious  heritage  of  knowledge  for 
mankind  is  it  a  boon  for  a  scientific  observer  to 
have  awakened  the  spirit  of  observation  in  others 
and  to  be  the  founder  of  a  new  school  of  thought. 
This  Basil  Valentine  undoubtedly  did. 

Besides,  his  work  furnishes  evidence  that  the 
investigating  spirit  was  abroad  just  when  it  is 
usually  supposed  not  to  have  been,  for  the  Thur- 
ingian  monk  surely  did  not  do  all  his  investigat- 
ing alone,  but  must  have  received  as  well  as 
given  many  a  suggestion  to  his  contemporaries 

In  the  history  of  education  there  are  two  com- 
monplaces that  are  appealed  to  oftener  than  any 
other  as  the  sources  of  material  with  regard  to 
the  influence  of  the  Catholic  Church  on  educa- 
tion during  the  centuries  preceding  the  Refor- 
mation. These  are  the  supposed  idleness  of  the 
monks,  and  the  foolish  belief  in  the  transmuta- 
tion of  metals  and  the  search  for  the  philoso- 
pher's stone  which  dominated  the  minds  of  so 
many  of  the  educated  men  of  the  time.  It  is  in 
Germany  especially  that  these  two  features  of 
the  pre-Reformation  period  are  supposed  to  be 
best  illustrated.  In  recent  years,  however,  there 
nas  come  quite  a  revolution  in  the  feelings  even 
of  those  outside  of  the  Church  with  regard  to 
the  proper  appreciation  of  the  work  of  the  mon- 
astic scholars  of  these  earlier  centuries.  Even 
though  some  of  them  did  dream  golden  dreams 
over  their  alembics,  the  love  of  knowledge  meant 


50  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

more  to  them,  as  to  the  serious  students  of  any 
age,  than  anything  that  might  be  made  by  it. 
As  for  their  scientific  beliefs,  if  there  can  be  a 
conversion  of  one  element  into  another,  as  seems 
true  of  radium,  then  the  possibility  of  the  trans- 
mutation of  metals  is  not  so  absurd  as,  for  a  cen- 
tury or  more,  it  has  seemed ;  and  it  is  not  im- 
possible that  at  some  time  even  gold  may  be 
manufactured  out  of  other  metallic  materials. 

Of  course,  a  still  worthier  change  of  mind  has 
come  over  the  attitude  of  educators  because  of 
the  growing  sense  of  appreciation  for  the  won- 
derful work  of  the  monks  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  even  of  those  centuries  that  are  supposed  to 
show  least  of  the  influence  of  these  groups  of 
men  who,  forgetting  material  progress,  devoted 
themselves  to  the  preservation  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  things  of  the  spirit.  The  impression 
that  would  consider  the  pre-Reformation  monks 
in  Germany  as  unworthy  of  their  high  calling  in 
the  great  mass  is  almost  entirely  without  foun- 
dation. Obscure  though  the  lives  of  most  of 
them  were,  many  of  them  rose  above  their  en- 
vironment in  such  a  way  as  to  make  their  work 
landmarks  in  the  history  of  progress  for  all  time. 

Because  their  discoveries  are  buried  in  the  old 
Latin  folios  that  are  contained  only  in  the  best 
libraries,  not  often  consulted  by  the  modern 
scientist,  it  is  usually  thought  that  the  scientific 
investigators  of  these  centuries  before  the  Refor- 
mation did  no  work  that  would  be  worth  while 
considering  in  our  present  day.     It  is  only  some 


BASIL    VALENTINE  5 1 

one  who  goes  into  this  matter  as  a  labor  of  love 
who  will  consider  it  worth  his  while  to  take  the 
trouble  seriously  to  consult  these  musty  old 
tomes.  Many  a  scholar,  however,  has  found  his 
labor  well  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  many 
an  anticipation  of  modern  science  in  these  vol- 
umes so  much  neglected  and  where  such  treasure- 
trove  is  least  expected.  Professor  Clifford  All- 
butt,  the  Regius  Professor  of  physics  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  in  his  address  on  "  The 
Historical  Relations  of  Medicine  and  Surgery 
Down  to  the  End  of  the  Sixteenth  Century," 
which  was  delivered  at  the  St.  Louis  Congress 
of  Arts  and  Sciences  during  the  Exposition  in 
1904,  has  shown  how  much  that  is  supposed  to 
be  distinctly  modern  in  medicine,  and  above  all 
in  surgery,  was  the  subject  of  discussion  at  the 
French  and  Italian  universities  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  William  Salicet,  for  instance,  who 
taught  at  the  University  of  Bologna,  published 
a  large  series  of  case  histories,  substituted  the 
knife  for  the  Arabic  use  of  the  cautery,  described 
the  danger  of  wounds  of  the  neck,  investigated 
the  causes  of  the  failure  of  healing  by  first  in- 
tention, and  sutured  divided  nerves.  His  pupil, 
Lanfranc,  who  taught  later  at  the  University  of 
Paris,  went  farther  than  his  master  by  distin- 
guishing between  venous  and  arterial  hemor- 
rhage, requiring  digital  compression  for  an  hour 
to  stop  hemorrhage  from  the  venae  pulsatiles — 
the  pulsating  veins,  as  they  were  called — and  if 
this  failed  because  of  the  size  of  the  vessel,  sug- 


[boston  college 


52  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

gesting  the  application  of  a  ligature.  Lanfranc's 
chapter  on  injuries  to  the  head  still  remains  a 
noteworthy  book  in  surgery  that  establishes  be- 
yond a  doubt  how  thoughtfully  practical  were 
these  teachers  in  the  medieval  universities.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  at  this  time  all  the 
teachers  in  universities,  even  those  in  the  med- 
ical schools  as  well  as  those  occupied  with  sur- 
gery, were  clerics.  Professor  Allbutt  calls  atten- 
tion over  and  over  again  to  this  fact,  because  it 
emphasizes  the  thoroughness  of  educational  meth- 
ods, in  spite  of  the  supposed  difficulties  that 
would  lie  in  the  way  of  an  exclusively  clerical 
teaching  staff. 

In  chemistry  the  advances  made  during  the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries 
were  even  more  noteworthy  than  those  in  any 
other  department  of  science.  Albertus  Magnus, 
who  taught  at  Paris,  wrote  no  less  than  sixteen 
treatises  on  chemical  subjects,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  he  was  a  theologian  as  well  as 
a  scientist  and  that  his  printed  works  filled  six- 
teen folio  volumes,  he  somehow  found  the  time 
to  make  many  observations  for  himself  and  per- 
formed numberless  experiments  in  order  to  clear 
up  doubts.  The  larger  histories  of  chemistry 
accord  him  his  proper  place  and  hail  him  as  a 
great  founder  in  chemistry  and  a  pioneer  in  orig- 
inal investigation. 

Even  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin,  much  as  he  was 
occupied  with  theology  and  philosophy,  found 
some  time  to  devote  to  chemical  questions.    After 


BASIL    VALENTINE  53 

all,  this  is  only  what  might  have  been  expected 
of  the  favorite  pupil  of  Albertus  Magnus.  Three 
treatises  on  chemical  subjects  from  Aquinas's 
pen  have  been  preserved  for  us,  and  it  is  to  him 
that  we  are  said  to  owe  the  origin  of  the  word 
amalgam,  which  he  first  used  in  describing  vari- 
ous chemical  methods  of  metalic  combination 
with  mercury  that  were  discovered  in  the  search 
for  the  genuine  transmutation  of  metals. 

Albertus  Magnus's  other  great  scientific  pupil, 
Roger  Bacon,  the  English  Franciscan  friar,  fol- 
lowed more  closely  in  the  physical  scientific  ways 
of  his  great  master.  Altogether  he  wrote  some 
eighteen  treatises  on  chemical  subjects.  For  a 
long  time  it  was  considered  that  he  was  the  in- 
ventor of  gunpowder,  though  this  is  now  known 
to  have  been  introduced  into  Europe  by  the 
Arabs.  Roger  Bacon  studied  gunpowder  and 
various  other  explosive  combinations  in  consid- 
erable detail,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  he 
obtained  the  undeserved  reputation  of  being  an 
original  discoverer  in  this  line.  How  well  he 
realized  how  much  might  be  accomplished  by 
means  of  the  energy  stored  up  in  explosives  can 
perhaps  be  best  appreciated  from  the  fact  that  he 
suggested  that  boats  would  go  along  the  rivers 
and  across  the  seas  without  either  sails  or  oars 
and  that  carriages  would  go  along  the  streets 
without  horse  or  man  power.  He  considered 
that  man  would  eventually  invent  a  method  of 
harnessing  these  explosive  mixtures  and  of  util- 
izing  their    energies    for   his    purposes   without 


54  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

danger.  It  is  curiously  interesting  to  find,  as 
we  begin  the  twentieth  century,  and  gasolene  is 
so  commonly  used  for  the  driving  of  automo- 
biles and  motor  boats  and  is  being  introduced 
even  on  railroad  cars  in  the  West  as  the  most 
available  source  of  energy  for  suburban  traffic, 
that  this  generation  should  only  be  fulfilling  the 
idea  of  the  old  Franciscan  friar  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  who  prophesied  that  in  explosives  there 
was  the  secret  of  eventually  manageable  energy 
for   transportation   purposes. 

Succeeding  centuries  were  not  as  fruitful  in 
great  scientists  as  the  thirteenth,  and  yet  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  there  was  a  pope, 
three  of  whose  scientific  treatises — one  on  the 
transmutation  of  metals,  which  he  considers  an 
impossibility,  at  least  as  far  as  the  manufacture 
of  gold  and  silver  was  concerned;  a  treatise  on 
diseases  of  the  eyes,  of  which  Professor  Allbutt  x 
says  that  it  was  not  without  its  distinctive  prac- 
tical value,  though  compiled  so  early  in  the  his- 
tory of  eye  surgery;  and,  finally,  his  treatise  on 
the  preservation  of  the  health,  written  when  he 
was  himself  over  eighty  years  of  age — are  all 
considered  by  good  authorities  as  worthy  of  the 
best  scientific  spirit  of  the  time.  This  pope  was 
John  XXII,  of  whom  it  has  been  said  over  and 
over  again  by  Protestant  historians  that  he  issued 
a  bull  forbidding  chemistry,  though  he  was  him- 
self one  of  the  enthusiastic  students  of  chemistry 

1  Address    cited. 


BASIL    VALENTINE  55 

in  his  younger  years  and  always  retained  his  in- 
terest in  the  science.1 

During  the  fourteenth  century  Arnold  of  Villa- 
nova,  the  inventor  of  nitric  acid,  and  the  two 
Hollanduses  kept  up  the  tradition  of  original  in- 
vestigation in  chemistry.  Altogether  there  are 
some  dozen  treatises  from  these  three  men  on 
chemical  subjects.  The  Hollanduses  particularly 
did  their  work  in  a. spirit  of  thoroughly  frank, 
original  investigation.  They  were  more  inter- 
ested in  minerals  than  in  any  other  class  of  sub- 
stances, but  did  not  waste  much  time  on  the 
question  of  transmutation  of  metals.  Professor 
Thompson,  the  professor  of  chemistry  at  Edin- 
burgh, said  in  his  history  of  chemistry  many 
years  ago  that  the  Hollanduses  have  very  clear 
descriptions  of  their  processes  of  treating  min- 
erals in  investigating  their  composition,  which 
serve  to  show  that  their  knowledge  was  by  no 
means  entirely  theoretical  or  acquired  only  from 
books  or  by  argumentation. 

Before  the  end  of  this  fourteenth  century,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  authorities  on  this  subject, 
Basil  Valentine,  the  more  particular  subject  of 
our  essay,  was  born. 

Valentine's  career  is  a  typical  example  of  the 
personally  obscure  but  intellectually  brilliant  lives 

1  For  the  refutation  of  this  calumny  with  regard  to 
John  XXII,  see  "  Pope  John  XXII  and  the  supposed 
Bull  forbidding  Chemistry,"  by  James  J.  Walsh,  Ph.  D., 
LL.  D.,  in  the  Medical  Library  and  Historical  Journal, 
October,   1905. 


56  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

which  these  old  monks  lived.  It  seems  probable, 
according  to  the  best  authorities,  as  we  have  said, 
that  his  work  began  shortly  before  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  although  most  of  what  was 
important  in  it  was  accomplished  during  the 
second  half.  It  would  not  be  so  surprising,  as 
most  people  who  have  been  brought  up  to  con- 
sider the  period  just  before  the  Reformation  in 
Germany  as  wanting  in  progressive  scholars 
might  imagine,  for  a  supremely  great  original 
investigator  to  have  existed  in  North  Germany 
about  this  time.  After  all,  before  the  end  of  the 
century,  Copernicus,  the  Pole,  working  in  north- 
ern Germany,  had  announced  his  theory  that  the 
earth  was  not  the  center  of  the  universe,  and  had 
set  forth  all  that  this  announcement  meant.  To 
a  bishop-friend  who  said  to  him,  "  But  this  means 
that  you  are  giving  us  a  new  universe,"  he  re- 
plied that  the  universe  was  already  there,  but  his 
theory  would  lead  men  to  recognize  its  existence. 
In  southern  Germany,  Thomas  a  Kempis,  who 
died  in  1471,  had  traced  for  man  the  outlines  of 
another  universe,  that  of  his  own  soul,  from  its 
mystically  practical  side.  These  great  Germans 
were  only  the  worthy  contemporaries  of  many 
other  German  scholars  scarcely  less  distinguished 
than  these  supremes  geniuses.  The  second  half 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  beginning  of  the 
Renaissance  in  Germany  as  well  as  Italy,  is  that 
wonderful  time  in  history  when  somehow  men's 
eyes  were  opened  to  see  farther  and  their  minds 
broadened   to   gather  in   more   of   the   truth   of 


BASIL    VALENTINE  S7 

man's  relation  to  the  universe,  than  had  ever  be- 
fore been  the  case  in  all  the  centuries  of  human 
existence,  or  than  has  ever  been  possible  even  in 
these  more  modern  centuries,  though  supposedly 
we  are  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages  in  the  foremost 
files  of  time. 

Coming  as  he  did  before  printing,  when  the 
spirit  of  tradition  was  even  more  rife  and  domi- 
nating than  it  has  been  since,  it  is  almost  need- 
less to  say  that  there  are  many  curious  legends 
associated  with  the  name  of  Basil  Valentine. 
Two  centuries  before  his  time,  Roger  Bacon, 
doing  his  work  in  England,  had  succeeded  in 
attracting  so  much  attention  even  from  the  com- 
mon people,  because  of  his  wonderful  scientific 
discoveries,  that  his  name  became  a  by-word  and 
many  strange  magical  feats  were  attributed  to 
him.  Friar  Bacon  was  the  great  wizard  even  in 
the  plays  of  the  Elizabethan  period.  A  number 
of  the  same  sort  of  myths  attached  themselves  to 
the  Benedictine  monk  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
He  was  proclaimed  in  popular  story  to  have  been 
a  wonderful  magician.  Even  his  manuscript,  it 
was  said,  had  not  been  published  directly,  but 
had  been  hidden  in  a  pillar  in  the  church  attached 
to  the  monastery  and  had  been  discovered  there 
after  the  splitting  open  of  the  pillar  by  a  bolt  of 
lightning  from  heaven.  It  is  the  extension  of 
this  tradition  that  has  sometimes  led  to  the 
assumption  that  Valetine  lived  in  an  earlier  cen- 
tury, some  even  going  so  far  as  to  say  that  he, 
too,  like  Roger  Bacon,  was  a  product  of  the  thir- 


58  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

teenth  century.  It  seems  reasonably  possible, 
however,  to  separate  the  traditional  from  what  is 
actual  in  his  existence,  and  thus  to  obtain  some 
idea  at  least  of  his  work,  if  not  of  the  details  of 
his  life.  The  internal  evidence  from  his  works 
enable  the  historian  of  science  to  place  him  within 
a  half  century  of  the  discovery  of  America. 

One  of  the  stories  told  with  regard  to  Basil 
Valentine,  because  it  has  become  a  commonplace 
in  philology,  has  made  him  more  generally  known 
than  any  of  his  actual  discoveries.  In  one  of  the 
most  popular  of  the  old-fashioned  text-books  of 
chemistry  in  use  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  in 
the  chapter  on  Antimony,  there  was  a  story  that 
I  suppose  students  never  forgot.  It  was  said 
that  Basil  Valentine,  a  monk  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
was  the  discoverer  of  this  substance.  After  hav- 
ing experimented  with  it  in  a  number  of  ways, 
he  threw  some  of  it  out  of  his  laboratory  one 
day,  where  the  swine  of  the  monastery,  finding  it, 
proceeded  to  gobble  it  up  together  with  some 
other  refuse.  He  watched  the  effect  upon  the 
swine  very  carefully,  and  found  that,  after  a 
preliminary  period  of  digestive  disturbance,  these 
swine  developed  an  enormous  appetite  and  be- 
came fatter  than  any  of  the  others.  This  seemed 
a  rather  desirable  result,  and  Basil  Valentine, 
ever  on  the  search  for  the  practical,  thought  that 
he  might  use  the  remedy  to  good  purpose  even 
on  the  members  of  the  community. 

Now,  some  of  the  monks  in  the  monastery  were 
of  rather  frail  health  and  delicate  constitution, 


BASIL    VALENTINE  59 


and  he  thought  that  the  putting  on  of  a  little  fat 
in  their  case  might  be  a  good  thing.  Accord- 
ingly he  administered,  surreptitiously,  some  of 
the  salts  of  antimony,  with  which  he  was  experi- 
menting, in  the  food  served  to  these  monks. 
The  result,  however,  was  not  so  favorable  as  in 
the  case  of  the  hogs.  Indeed,  according  to  one, 
though  less  authentic,  version  of  the  story,  some 
of  the  poor  monks,  the  unconscious  subjects  of 
the  experiment,  even  perished  as  the  result  of 
the  ingestion  of  the  antimonial  compounds.  Ac- 
cording to  the  better  version  they  suffered  only 
the  usual  unpleasant  consequences  of  taking  anti- 
mony, which  are,  however,  quite  enough  for  a 
fitting  climax  to  the  story.  Basil  Valentine  called 
the  new  substance  which  he  had  discovered  anti- 
mony, that  is,  opposed  to  monks.  It  might  be 
good  for  hogs,  but  it  was  a  form  of  monks'  bane, 
as  it  were.1 

1  It  is  curious  to  trace  how  old  are  the  traditions  on 
which  some  of  these  old  stories  that  must  now  be  re- 
jected, are  founded.  I  have  come  upon  the  story  with 
regard  to  Basil  Valentine  and  the  antimony  and  the 
monks  in  an  old  French  medical  encyclopedia  of  biog- 
raphy, published  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  at  that 
time  there  was  no  doubt  at  all  expressed  as  to  its  truth. 
How  much  older  than  this  it  may  be  I  do  not  know, 
though  it  is  probable  that  it  comes  from  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  kakoethes  scribendi  attacked  many 
people  because  of  the  facility  of  printing,  and  when 
most  of  the  good  stories  that  have  so  worried  the  mod- 
ern dry-as-dust  historian  in  his  researches  for  their 
correction  became  a  part  of  the  body  of  supposed  his- 
torical   tradition. 


60  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

Unfortunately  for  most  of  the  good  stories  of 
history,  modern  criticism  has  nearly  always 
failed  to  find  any  authentic  basis  for  them,  and 
they  have  had  to  go  the  way  of  the  legends  of 
Washington's  hatchet  and  Tell's  apple.  We  are 
sorry  to  say  that  that  seems  to  be  true  also  of 
this  particular  story.  Antimony,  the  word,  is 
very  probably  derived  from  certain  dialectic 
forms  of  the  Greek  word  for  the  metal,  and  the 
name  is  no  more  derived  from  anti  and  monachus 
than  it  is  from  anti  and  monos  (opposed  to  single 
existence),  another  fictitious  derivation  that  has 
been  suggested,  and  one  whose  etymological  value 
is  supposed  to  consist  in  the  fact  that  antimony  is 
practically  never  found  alone  in  nature. 

Notwithstanding  the  apparent  cloud  of  un- 
founded traditions  that  are  associated  with  his 
name,  there  can  be  no  doubt  at  all  of  the  fact 
that  Valentinus — to  give  him  the  Latin  name  by 
which  he  is  commonly  designated  in  foreign  liter- 
atures— was  one  of  the  great  geniuses  who,  work- 
ing in  obscurity,  make  precious  steps  into  the 
unknown  that  enable  humanity  after  them  to  see 
things  more  clearly  than  ever  before.  There  are 
definite  historical  grounds  for  placing  Basil  Val- 
entine as  the  first  of  the  series  of  careful  ob- 
servers who  differentiated  chemistry  from  the 
old  alchemy  and  applied  its  precious  treasures  of 
information  to  the  uses  of  medicine.  It  was  be- 
cause of  the  study  of  Basil  Valentine's  work  that 
Paracelsus  broke  away  from  the  Galenic  tradi- 
tions,  so  supreme  in  medicine  up  to  his  time, 


BASIL    VALENTINE  6l 

and  began  our  modern  pharmaceutics.  Follow- 
ing on  the  heels  of  Paracelsus  came  Van  Hel- 
mont,  the  father  of  modern  medical  chemistry, 
and  these  three  did  more  than  any  others  to  en- 
large the  scope  of  medication  and  to  make  ob- 
servation rather  than  authority  the  most  import- 
ant criterion  of  truth  in  medicine.  Indeed,  the 
work  of  these  three  men  dominated  medicine,  or 
at  least  the  department  of  pharmaceutics,  down 
almost  to  our  own  day,  and  their  influence  is  still 
felt  in  drug-giving. 

While  we  do  not  know  the  absolute  date  of 
either  the  birth  or  the  death  of  Basil  Valentine 
and  are  not  sure  even  of  the  exact  period  in 
which  he  lived  and  did  his  work,  we  are  sure 
that  a  great  original  observer  about  the  time  of 
the  invention  of  printing  studied  mercury  and 
sulphur  and  various  salts,  and  above  all,  intro- 
duced antimony  to  the  notice  of  the  scientific 
world,  and  especially  to  the  favor  of  practition- 
ers of  medicine.  His  book,  "  The  Triumphal 
Chariot  of  Antimony,"  is  full  of  conclusions  not 
quite  justified  by  his  premises  nor  by  his  obser- 
vations. There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the 
observational  methods  which  he  employed  did 
give  an  immense  amount  of  knowledge  and 
formed  the  basis  of  the  method  of  investigation 
by  which  the  chemical  side  of  medicine  was  to 
develop  during  the  next  two  or  three  centuries. 
Great  harm  was  done  by  the  abuse  of  antimony, 
but  then  great  harm  is  done  by  the  abuse  of  any- 
thing, no  matter  how  good  it  may  be.     For  a 


62  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

time  it  came  to  be  the  most  important  drug  in 
medicine  and  was  only  replaced  by  venesection. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  doctors  were 
looking  for  effects  from  their  drugs,  and  anti- 
mony is,  above  all  things,  effective.  Patients, 
too,  wished  to  see  the  effect  of  the  medicines 
they  took.  They  do  so  even  yet,  and  when  anti- 
mony was  administered  there  was  no  doubt  about 
its  working. 

Some  five  years  ago,  when  Sir  Michael  Foster, 
M.  D.,  professor  of  physiology  in  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  England,  was  invited  to  deliver 
the  Lane  lectures  at  the  Cooper  Medical  College, 
in  San  Francisco,  he  took  for  his  subject  "  The 
History  of  Physiology."  Id  the  course  of  his 
lecture  on  "  The  Rise  of  Chemical  Physiology  " 
he  began  with  the  name  of  Basil  Valentine,  who 
first  attracted  men's  attention  to  the  many  chem- 
ical substances  around  them  that  might  be  used 
in  the  treatment  of  disease,  and  said  of  him: — 

He  was  one  of  the  alchemists,  but  in  addition  to  his 
inquiries  into  the  properties  of  metals  and  his  search  for 
the  philosopher's  stone,  he  busied  himself  with  the  nature 
of  drugs,  vegetable  and  mineral,  and  with  their  action  as 
remedies  for  disease.  He  was  no  anatomist,  no  physiol- 
ogist, but  rather  what  nowadays  we  should  call  a  phar- 
macologist. He  did  not  care  for  the  problem  of  the 
body,  all  he  sought  to  understand  was  how  the  consti- 
tuents of  the  soil  and  of  plants  might  be  treated  so  as 
to  be  available  for  healing  the  sick  and  how  they  pro- 
duced their  effects.  We  apparently  owe  to  him  the  in- 
troduction of  many  chemical  substances,  for  instance,  of 


BASIL    VALENTINE  63 

hydrochloric  acid,  which  he  prepared  from  oil  of  vitriol 
and  salt,  and  of  many  vegetable  drugs.  And  he  was  ap- 
parently the  author  of  certain  conceptions  which,  as  we 
shall  see,  played  an  important  part  in  the  development  of 
chemistry  and  of  physiology.  To  him,  it  seems,  we  owe 
the  idea  of  the  three  "  elements,"  as  they  were  and  have 
been  called,  replacing  the  old  idea  of  the  ancients  of  the 
four  elements — earth,  air,  fire,  and  water.  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  both  in  the  ancient  and  in 
the  new  idea  the  word  "  element "  was  not  intended  to 
mean  that  which  it  means  to  us  now,  a  fundamental  unit 
of  matter,  but  a  general  quality  or  property  of  matter. 
The  three  elements  of  Valentine  were  (1)  sulphur,  or 
that  which  is  combustible,  which  is  changed  or  destroyed, 
or  which  at  all  events  disappears  during  burning  or 
combustion ;  (2)  mercury,  that  which  temporarily  disap- 
pears during  burning  or  combustion,  which  is  dis- 
sociated in  the  burning  from  the  body  burnt,  but  which 
may  be  recovered,  that  is  to  say,  that  which  is  volatile, 
and  (3)  salt,  that  which  is  fixed,  the  residue  or  ash 
which  remains  after  burning. 

The  most  interesting  of  Basil  Valentine's 
books,  and  the  one  which  has  had  the  most  en- 
during influence,  is  undoubtedly  "  The  Tri- 
umphal Chariot  of  Antimony/'  It  has  been 
translated  and  has  had  a  wide  vogue  in  every  lan- 
guage of  modern  Europe.  Its  recommendation 
of  antimony  had  such  an  effect  upon  medical 
practice  that  it  continued  to  be  the  most  import- 
ant drug  in  the  pharmacopceia  down  almost  to 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  If  any 
proof  were  needed  that  Basil  Valentine  or  that 
the  author  of  the  books  that  go  under  that  name 
was  a  monk,  it  would  be  found  in  the  introduc- 


64  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

tion  to  this  volume,  which  not  only  states  that 
fact  very  clearly,  but  also  in  doing  so  makes  use 
of  language  that  shows  the  writer  to  have  been 
deeply  imbued  with  the  old  monastic  spirit.  I 
quote  the  first  paragraph  of  this  introduction  in 
order  to  make  clear  what  I  mean.  The  quota- 
tion is  taken  from  the  English  translation  of  the 
work  as  published  in  London  in  1678.  Curi- 
ously enough,  seeing  the  obscurity  surrounding 
Valentine  himself,  we  do  not  know  for  sure  who 
made  the  translation.  The  translator  apologizes 
somewhat  for  the  deeply  religious  spirit  of  the 
book,  but  considers  that  he  was  not  justified  in 
eliminating  any  of  this.  Of  course,  the  transla- 
tion is  left  in  the  quaint  old-fashioned  form  so 
eminently  suited  to  the  thoughts  of  the  old  mas- 
ter, and  the  spelling  and  use  of  capitals  is  not 
changed : 

Basil  Valentine:  His  Triumphant  Chariot  of  Anti- 
mony.— Since  I,  Basil  Valentine,  by  Religious  Vows  am 
bound  to  live  according  to  the  Order  of  St.  Benedict, 
and  that  requires  another  manner  of  spirit  of  Holiness 
than  the  common  state  of  Mortals  exercised  in  the  pro- 
fane business  of  this  World;  I  thought  it  my  duty  be- 
fore all  things,  in  the  beginning  of  this  little  book,  to 
declare  what  is  necessary  to  be  known  by  the  pious 
Spagyrist  [old-time  name  for  medical  chemist],  inflamed 
with  an  ardent  desire  of  this  Art,  as  what  he  ought  to 
do,  and  whereunto  to  direct  his  aim,  that  he  may  lay 
such  foundations  of  the  whole  matter  as  may  be  stable; 
lest  his  Building,  shaken  with  the  Winds,  happen  to  fall, 
and  the  whole  Edifice  to  be  involved  in  shameful  Ruine, 


BASIL    VALENTINE  65 

which  otherwise,  being  founded  on  more  firm  and  solid 
principles,  might  have  continued  for  a  long  series  of 
time.  Which  Admonition  I  judged  was,  is  and  always 
will  be  a  necessary  part  of  my  Religious  Office;  espe- 
cially since  we  must  all  die,  and  no  one  of  us  which 
are  now,  whether  high  or  low,  shall  long  be  seen 
among  the  number  of  men.  For  it  concerns  me  to 
recommend  these  Meditations  of  Mortality  to  Posterity, 
leaving  them  behind  me,  not  only  that  honor  may  be 
given  to  the  Divine  Majesty,  but  also  that  Men  may  obey 
him  sincerely  in  all  things. 

In  this  my  Meditation  I  found  that  there  were  five 
principal  heads,  chiefly  to  be  considered  by  the  wise  and 
prudent  spectators  of  our  Wisdom  and  Art.  The  first  of 
which  is,  Invocation  of  God.  The  second,  Contempla- 
tion of  Nature.  The  third,  True  Preparation.  The 
fourth,  the  Way  of  Using.  The  fifth,  Utility  and  Fruit. 
For  he  who  regards  not  these,  shall  never  obtain  place 
among  true  Chymists,  or  fill  up  the  number  of  perfect 
Spagyrists.  Therefore,  touching  these  five  heads,  we 
shall  here  following  treat  and  so  far  declare  them,  as 
that  the  general  Work  may  be  brought  to  light  and  per- 
fected by  an  intent  and  studious  Operator.  A 

This  book,  though  the  title  might  seem  to  in- 
dicate it,  is  not  devoted  entirely  to  the  study  of 
antimony,  but  contains  many  important  additions 
to  the  chemistry  of  the  time.  For  instance,  Basil 
Valentine  explains  in  this  work  how  what  he 
calls  the  spirit  of  salt  might  be  obtained.  He 
succeeded  in  manufacturing  this  material  by 
treating  common  salt  with  oil  of  vitriol  and  heat. 
From  the  description  of  the  uses  to  which  he 
put  the  end  product  of  his  chemical  manipulation, 
it  is  evident  that  under  the  name  of  spirit  of  salt 


66  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

he  is  describing  what  we  now  know  as  hydro- 
chloric acid.  This  is  the  first  definite  mention  of 
it  in  the  history  of  science,  and  the  method  sug- 
gested for  its  preparation  is  not  very  different 
from  that  employed  even  at  the  present  time. 
He  also  suggests  in  this  volume  how  alcohol  may 
be  obtained  in  high  strengths.  He  distilled  the 
spirit  obtained  from  wine  over  carbonate  of 
potassium,  and  thus  succeeded  in  depriving  it  of 
a  great  proportion  of  its  water. 

We  have  said  that  he  was  deeply  interested  in 
the  philosopher's  stone.  Naturally  this  turned 
his  attention  to  the  study  of  metals,  and  so  it  is 
not  surprising  to  find  that  he  succeeded  in  for- 
mulating a  method  by  which  metallic  copper 
could  be  obtained.  The  substance  used  for  the 
purpose  was  copper  pyrites,  which  was  changed 
to  an  impure  sulphate  of  copper  by  the  action 
of  oil  of  vitriol  and  moist  air.  The  sulphate  of 
copper  occurred  in  solution,  and  the  copper  could 
be  precipitated  from  it  by  plunging  an  iron  bar 
into  it.  Basil  Valentine  recognized  the  presence 
of  this  peculiar  yellow  metal  and  studied  some 
of  its  qualities.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
quite  sure,  however,  whether  the  phenomenon 
that  he  witnessed  was  not  really  a  transmutation 
of  the  iron  into  copper,  as  a  consequence  of  the 
other  chemicals  present. 

There  are  some  observations  on  chemical  physi- 
ology, and  especially  with  regard  to  respiration, 
in  the  book  on  antimony  which  show  their  author 
to  have  anticipated  the  true  explanation  of  the 


BASIL    VALENTINE  67 

theory  of  respiration.  He  states  that  animals 
breathe,  because  the  air  is  needed  to  support  their 
life,  and  that  all  the  animals  exhibit  the  phenom- 
enon of  respiration.  He  even  insists  that  the 
fishes,  though  living  in  water,  breathe  air,  and 
he  adduces  in  support  of  this  idea  the  fact  that 
whenever  a  river  is  entirely  frozen  the  fishes  die. 
The  reason  for  this  being,  according  to  this  old- 
time  physiologist,  not.  that  the  fishes  are  frozen 
to  death,  but  that  they  are  not  able  to  obtain  air 
in  the  ice  as  they  did  in  the  water,  and  conse- 
quently  perish. 

There  are  many  testimonies  to  the  practical 
character  of  all  his  knowledge  and  his  desire  to 
apply  it  for  the  benefit  of '  humanity.  The  old 
monk  could  not  repress  the  expression  of  his  im- 
patience with  physicians  who  gave  to  patients 
for  diseases  of  which  they  knew  little,  remedies 
of  which  they  knew  less.  For  him  it  was  an  un- 
pardonable sin  for  a  physician  not  to  have  faith- 
fully studied  the  various  mixtures  that  he  pre- 
scribed for  his  patients,  and  not  to  know  not 
only  their  appearance  and  taste  and  effect,  but 
also  the  limits  of  their  application.  Considering 
that  at  the  present  time  it  is  a  frequent  source 
of  complaint  that  physicians  often  prescribe  rem- 
edies with  whose  physical  appearances  they  are 
not  familiar,  this  complaint  of  the  old-time  chem- 
ist alchemist  will  be  all  the  more  interesting  for 
the  modern  physician.  It  is  evident  that  when 
Basil  Valentine  allows  his  ire  to  get  the  better 
of  him  it  is  because  of  his  indignation  over  the 


68  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

quacks  who  were  abusing  medicine  and  patients 
in  his  time,  as  they  have  ever  since.  There  is  a 
curious  bit  of  aspersion  on  mere  book-learning 
in  the  passage  that  has  a  distinctly  modern  ring, 
and  one  feels  the  truth  of  Russell  Lowell's  ex- 
pression that  to  read  a  great  genius,  no  matter 
how  antique,  is  like  reading  a  commentary  in  the 
morning  paper,  so  up-to-date  does  genius  ever 
remain : — 

And  whensoever  I  shall  have  occasion  to  contend  in 
the  School  with  such  a  Doctor,  who  knows  not  how 
himself  to  prepare  his  own  medicines,  but  commits  that 
business  to  another,  I  am  sure  I  shall  obtain  the  Palm 
from  him ;  for  indeed  that  good  man  knows  not  what 
medicines  he  prescribes  to  the  sick;  whether  the  color 
of  them  be  white,  black,  grey,  or  blew,  he  cannot  tell; 
nor  doth  this  wretched  man  know  whether  the  medicine 
he  gives  be  dry  or  hot,  Cold  or  humid;  but  he  only 
knows  that  he  found  it  so  written  in  his  Books,  and 
thence  pretends  knowledge  (or  as  it  were,  Possession) 
by  Prescription  of  a  very  long  time;  yet  he  desires  to 
further  Information.  Here  again  let  it  be  lawful  to  ex- 
claim, Good  God,  to  what  a  state  is  the  matter  brought ! 
what  goodness  of  minde  is  in  these  men !  what  care  do 
they  take  of  the  sick !  Wo,  wo  to  them !  in  the  day  of 
Judgment  they  will  find  the  fruit  of  their  ignorance  and 
rashness,  then  they  will  see  Him  whom  they  pierced, 
when  they  neglected  their  Neighbor,  sought  after  money 
and  nothing  else ;  whereas  were  they  cordial  in  their 
profession,  they  would  spend  Nights  and  Days  in  Labour 
that  they  might  become  more  learned  in  their  Art, 
whence  more  certain  health  would  accrew  to  the  sick 
with  their  Estimation  and  greater  glory  to  themselves. 
But  since  Labour  is  tedious  to  them,  they  commit  the 


BASIL    VALENTINE  69 

matter  to  chance,  and  being  secure  of  their  Honour,  and 
content  with  their  Fame,  they  (like  Brawlers)  defend 
themselves  with  a  certain  garrulity,  without  any  respect 
had  to    Confidence  or  Truth. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  reasons  why  Valentine's 
book  has  been  of  such  enduring  interest  is  that 
it  is  written  in  an  eminently  human  vein  and  out 
of  a  lively  imagination.  It  is  full  of  figures  re- 
lating to  many  other  things  besides  chemistry, 
which  serve  to  show  how  deeply  this  investigat- 
ing observer  was  attentive  to  all  the  problems  of 
life  around  him.  For  instance,  when  he  wants 
to  describe  the  affinity  that  exists  between  many 
substances  in  chemistry,  and  which  makes  it  im- 
possible for  them  not  to  be  attracted  to  one  an- 
other, he  takes  a  figure  from  the  attractions  that 
he  sees  exist  among  men  and  women.  There  are 
some  paragraphs  with  regard  to  the  influence  of 
the  passion  of  love  that  one  might  think  rather 
a  quotation  from  an  old-time  sermon  than  from 
a  great  ground-breaking  book  in  the  science  of 
chemistry. 

Love  leaves  nothing  entire  or  sound  in  man;  it  im- 
pedes his  sleep ;  he  cannot  rest  either  day  or  night ;  it 
takes  off  his  appetite  that  he  hath  no  disposition  either 
to  meat  or  drink  by  reason  of  the  continual  torments  of 
his  heart  and  mind.  It  deprives  him  of  all  Providence, 
hence  he  neglects  his  affairs,  vocation  and  business. 
He  minds  neither  study,  labor  nor  prayer;  casts  away 
all  thoughts  of  anything  but  the  body  beloved;  this  is 
his  study,  this  his  most  vain  occupation.  If  to  lovers 
the  success  be  not  answerable  to  their  wish,  or  so  soon 


JO  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

and  prosperously  as  they  desire,  how  many  melancholies 
henceforth  arise,  with  griefs  and  sadnesses,  with  which 
they  pine  away  and  wax  so  lean  as  they  have  scarcely 
any  flesh  cleaving  to  the  bones.  Yea,  at  last  they  lose 
the  life  itself,  as  may  be  proved  by  many  examples !  for 
such  men,  (which  is  an  horrible  thing  to  think  of)  slight 
and  neglect  all  perils  and  detriments,  both  of  the  body 
and  life,  and  of  the  soul  and  eternal  salvation. 

It  is  evident  that  human  nature  is  not  different 
in  our  sophisticated  twentieth  century  from  that 
which  this  observant  old  monk  saw  around  him 
in  the  fifteenth.     He  continues : — 

How  many  testimonies  of  this  violence  which  is  in 
love,  are  daily  found?  for  it  not  only  inflames  the 
younger  sort,  but  it  so  far  exaggerates  some  persons  far 
gone  in  years  as  through  the  burning  heat  thereof,  they 
are  almost  mad.  Natural  diseases  are  for  the  most  part 
governed  by  the  complexion  of  man  and  therefore  in- 
vade some  more  fiercely,  others  more  gently;  but  Love, 
without  distinction  of  poor  or  rich,  young  or  old,  seizeth 
all,  and  having  seized  so  blinds  them  as  forgetting  all 
rules  of  reason,  they  neither  see  nor  hear  any  snare. 

But  then  the  old  monk  thinks  that  he  has  said 
enough  about  this  subject  and  apologizes  for  his 
digression  in  another  paragraph  that  should  re- 
move any  lingering  doubt  there  may  be  with  re- 
gard to  the  genuineness  of  his  monastic  char- 
acter. The  personal  element  in  his  confession  is 
so  naive  and  so  simply  straightforward  that  in- 
stead of  seeming  to  be  the  result  of  conceit,  and 
so    repelling   the    reader,    it    rather    attracts    his 


BASIL    VALENTINE  JI 

kindly  feeling  for  its  author.  The  paragraph 
would  remind  one  in  certain  ways  of  that  per- 
sonal element  that  was  to  become  more  popular 
in  literature  after  Montaigne  had  made  such  ex- 
tensive use  of  it. 

But  of  these  enough;  for  it  becomes  not  a  religious 
man  to  insist  too  long  upon  these  cogitations,  or  to  give 
place  to  such  a  flame  in  his  heart.  Hitherto  (without 
boasting  I  speak  it)  I  have  throughout  the  whole  course 
of  my  life  kept  myself  safe  and  free  from  it,  and  I  pray 
and  invoke  God  to  vouchsafe  me  his  Grace  that  I  may 
keep  holy  and  inviolate  the  faith  which  I  have  sworn, 
and  live  contented  with  my  spiritual  spouse,  the  Holy, 
Catholick  Church.  For  no  other  reason  have  I  alleaged 
these  than  that  I  might  express  the  love  with  which  all 
tinctures  ought  to  be  moved  towards  metals,  if  ever  they 
be  admitted  by  them  into  true  friendship,  and  by  love, 
which  permeates  the  inmost  parts,  be  converted  into  a 
better  state. 

The  application  of  the  figure  at  the  end  of  his 
long  digression  is  characteristic  of  the  period  in 
which  he  wrote  and  to  a  considerable  extent  also 
of  the  German  literary  methods  of  the  time. 

In  this  volume  on  the  use  of  antimony  there 
are  in  most  of  the  editions  certain  biographical 
notes  which  have  sometimes  been  accepted  as 
authentic,  but  oftener  rejected.  According  to 
these,  Basil  Valentine  was  born  in  a  town  in 
Alsace,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Rhine.  As 
a  consequence  of  this,  there  are  several  towns 
that  have  laid  claim  to  being  his  birthplace.  M. 
Jean  Reynaud,  the  distinguished  French  philo- 


72  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

sophical  writer  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  once  said  that  Basil  Valentine,  like 
Ossian  and  Homer,  had  many  towns  claim  him 
years  after  his  death.  He  also  suggested  that, 
like  those  old  poets,  it  was  possible  that  the 
writings  sometimes  attributed  to  Basil  Valentine 
were  really  the  work  not  of  one  man,  but  of  sev- 
eral individuals.  There  are,  however,  many  ob- 
jections to  this  theory,  the  most  forceful  of  which 
is  the  internal  evidence  of  the  books  themselves 
and  their  style  and  method  of  treatment.  Other 
biographic  details  contained  in  "  The  Triumphal 
Chariot  of  Antimony "  are  undoubtedly  more 
correct.  According  to  them,  Basil  Valentine 
travelled  in  England  and  Holland  on  missions 
for  his  Order,  and  went  through  France  and 
Spain  on  a  pilgrimage  to  St.  James  of  Compo- 
stella. 

Besides  this  work,  there  is  a  number  of  other 
books  of  Basil  Valentine's,  printed  during  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  that  are  well- 
known  and  copies  of  which  may  be  found  in 
most  of  the  important  libraries.  The  United 
States  Surgeon  General's  Library  at  Washing- 
ton contains  several  of  the  works  on  medical 
subjects,  and  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine Library  has  some  valuable  editions  of  his 
works.  Some  of  his  other  well-known  books, 
each  of  which  is  a  good-sized  octavo  volume, 
bear  the  following  descriptive  titles.  (I  give  them 
in  English,  though,  as  they  are  usually  to  be 
found,  they  are  in  Latin,  sixteenth-century  trans- 


BASIL    VALENTINE  73 

lations  of  the  original  German)  :  "  The  World 
in  Miniature:  or,  The  Mystery  of  the  World 
and  of  Human  Medical  Science/'  published  at 
Marburg,  1609; — "The  Chemical  Apocalypse: 
or,  The  Manifestation  of  Artificial  Chemical 
Compounds,"  published  at  Erfurt  in  1624; — "A 
Chemico-Philosophic  Treatise  Concerning  Things 
Natural  and  Preternatural,  Especially  Relating 
to  the  Metals  and  the  Minerals,"  published  at 
Frankfurt  in  1676 ;  —  "  Haliography :  or,  The 
Science  of  Salts :  A  Treatise  on  the  Prepara- 
tion, Use  and  Chemical  Properties  of  All  the 
Mineral,  Animal  and  Vegetable  Salts,"  published 
at  Bologna  in  1644; — "The  Twelve  Keys  of 
Philosophy,"  Leipsic,  1630. 

The  great  interest  manifested  in  Basil  Valen- 
tine's work  at  the  Renaissance  period  can  be  best 
realized  from  the  number  of  manuscript  copies 
and  their  wide  distribution.  His  books  were  not 
all  printed  at  one  place,  but,  on  the  contrary,  in 
different  portions  of  Europe.  The  original  edi- 
tion of  "  The  Triumphal  Chariot  of  Antimony  " 
was  published  at  Leipsic  in  the  early  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  first  editions  of  the  other 
books,  however,  appeared  at  places  so  distant 
from  Leipsic  as  Amsterdam  and  Bologna,  while 
various  cities  of  Germany,  as  Erfurt  and  Frank- 
furt, claim  the  original  editions  of  still  other 
works.  Many  of  the  manuscript  copies  still  exist 
in  various  libraries  in  Europe;  and  while  there 
is  no  doubt  that  some  unimportant  additions  to 
the  supposed  works  of  Basil  Valentine  have  come 


74  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

from  the  attribution  to  him  of  scientific  treatises 
of  other  German  writers,  the  style  and  the 
method  of  the  principal  works  mentioned  are  en- 
tirely too  similar  not  to  have  been  the  fruit  of  a 
single  mind  and  that  possessed  of  a  distinct  in- 
vestigating genius  setting  it  far  above  any  of  its 
contemporaries  in  scientific  speculation  and  ob- 
servation. 

The  most  interesting  feature  of  all  of  Basil 
Valentine's  writings  that  are  extant  is  the  dis- 
tinctive tendency  to  make  his  observations  of 
special  practical  utility.  His  studies  in  antimony 
were  made  mainly  with  the  idea  of  showing  how 
that  substance  might  be  used  in  medicine.  He 
did  not  neglect  to  point  out  other  possible  uses, 
however,  and  knew  the  secret  of  the  employment 
of  antimony  in  order  to  give  sharpness  and  defi- 
nition to  the  impression  produced  by  metal  types. 
It  would  seem  as  though  he  was  the  first  scien- 
tist who  discussed  this  subject,  and  there  is  even 
some  question  whether  printers  and  type  foun- 
ders did  not  derive  their  ideas  in  this  matter 
from  Basil  Valentine,  rather  than  he  from  them. 
Interested  as  he  was  in  the  transmutation  of 
metals,  he  never  failed  to  try  to  find  and  suggest 
some  medicinal  use  for  all  of  the  substances  that 
he  investigated.  His  was  no  greedy  search  for 
gold  and  no  accumulation  of  investigations  with 
the  idea  of  benefiting  only  himself.  Mankind 
was  always  in  his  mind,  and  perhaps  there  is  no 
better  demonstration  of  his  fulfilment  of  the 
character  of  the  monk  than  this  constant  solici- 


BASIL   VALENTINE  75 

tude  to  benefit  others  by  every  bit  of  investiga- 
tion that  he  carried  out.  For  him  with  medieval 
nobleness  of  spirit  the  first  part  of  every  work 
must  be  the  invocation  of  God,  and  the  last, 
though  no  less  important  than  the  first,  must  be 
the  utility  and  fruit  for  mankind  that  can  be  de- 
rived from  it. 


IV. 


LINACRE:    SCHOLAR,    PHYSICIAN, 
PRIEST. 


LINACRE,  as  Dr.  Payne  remarks, 
"  was  possessed  from  his  youth 
till  his  death  by  the  enthusiasm  of 
learning.  He  was  an  idealist  de- 
voted to  objects  which  the  world 
thought  of  little  use."  Painstaking, 
accurate,  critical,  hypercritical  per- 
haps, he  remains  to-day  the  chief  lit- 
erary representative  of  British  Med- 
icine. Neither  in  Britain  nor  in 
Greater  Britain  have  we  maintained 
the  place  in  the  world  of  letters  cre- 
ated for  us  by  Linacre's  noble  start. 
Quoted   by   Osier  in  ^Equanimtias. 


THOMAS    L'INACRE 


\ 

1 


U 


IV. 

LINACRE:  SCHOLAR,  PHYSICIAN,  PRIEST. 

NOT  long  ago,  in  one  of  his  piquant  little 
essays,  Mr.  Augustine  Birrell  discussed 
the  question  as  to  what  really  happened  at  the 
time  of  the  so-called  Reformation  in  England. 
There  is  much  more  doubt  with  regard  to  this 
matter,  even  in  the  minds  of  non-Catholics,  than 
is  usually  suspected.  Mr.  Birrell  seems  to  have 
considered  it  one  of  the  most  important  prob- 
lems, and  at  the  same  time  not  by  any  means  the 
least  intricate  one,  in  modern  English  history. 
The  so-called  High  Church  people  emphatically 
insist  that  there  is  no  break  in  the  continuity  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  that  the  modern 
Anglicanism  is  a  direct  descendant  of  the  old 
British  Church.  They  reject  with  scorn  the  idea 
that  it  was  the  Lutheran  movement  on  the  Con- 
tinent which  brought  about  the  changes  in  the 
Anglican  Church  at  that  time.  Protestantism 
did  not  come  into  England  for  a  considerable 
period  after  the  change  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  and  when  it  did  come  its  ten- 
dencies were  quite  as  subversal  of  the  authority 
of  the  Anglican  as  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Protestantism  is  the  mother  of  Nonconformism 
in  England.  It  can  be  seen,  then,  that  the  ques- 
tion as  to  what  did  really  take  place  in  the  time 

79 


80  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

of  Henry  VIII  and  of  Edward  VI  is  still  open. 
It  has  seemed  to  me  that  no  little  light  on  this 
vexed  historical  question  will  be  thrown  by  a 
careful  study  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Linacre,  who, 
besides  being  the  best  known  physician  of  his 
time  in  England,  was  the  greatest  scholar  of  the 
English  Renaissance  period,  yet  had  all  his  life 
been  on  very  intimate  terms  with  the  ecclesias- 
tical authorities,  and  eventually  gave  up  his 
honors,  his  fortune,  and  his  profession  to  be- 
come a  simple  priest  of  the  old  English  Church. 

Considering  the  usually  accepted  notions  as  to 
the  sad  state  of  affairs  supposed  to  exist  in  the 
Church  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
this  is  a  very  remarkable  occurrence,  and  de- 
serves careful  study  to  determine  its  complete 
significance,  for  it  tells  better  than  anything  else 
the  opinion  of  a  distinguished  contemporary. 
Few  men  have  ever  been  more  highly  thought  of 
by  their  own  generation.  None  has  been  more 
sincerely  respected  by  intimate  friends,  who  were 
themselves  the  leaders  of  the  thought  of  their 
generation,  than  Thomas  Linacre,  scholar,  physi- 
cian and  priest ;  and  his  action  must  stand  as  the 
highest  possible  tribute  to  the  Church  in  Eng- 
land at  that  time. 

How  unimpaired  his  practical  judgment  of 
men  and  affairs  was  at  the  time  he  made  his 
change  from  royal  physician  to  simple  priest  can 
best  be  gathered  from  the  sagacity  displayed  in 
the  foundation  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physi- 
cians, an  institution  he  was  endowing  with  the 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     8i 

wealth  he  had  accumulated  in  some  twenty  years 
of  most  lucrative  medical  practice.  The  Royal 
College  of  Physicians  represents  the  first  attempt 
to  secure  the  regulation  of  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine in  England,  and,  thanks  to  its  founder's 
wonderful  foresight  and  practical  wisdom,  it  re- 
mains down  to  our  own  day,  under  its  original 
constitution,  one  of  the  most  effective  and  highly 
honored  of  British  scientific  foundations.  No 
distinction  is  more  sought  at  the  present  time  by 
young  British  medical  men,  or  by  American  or 
even  Continental  graduates  in  medicine,  than  the 
privilege  of  adding  to  their  names  the  letters 
"  F.  R.  C.  P.  (Eng.),"  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  of  England.  The  College 
worked  the  reformation  of  medical  practice  in 
England,  and  its  methods  have  proved  the  sug- 
gestive formulae  for  many  another  such  institu- 
tion and  for  laws  that  all  over  the  world  protect, 
to  some  extent  at  least,  the  public  from  quacks 
and  charlatans. 

Linacre's  change  of  profession  at  the  end  of 
his  life  has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  conjecture 
and  misconception  on  the  part  of  his  biographers. 
Few  of  them  seem  to  be  able  to  appreciate  the 
fact,  common  enough  in  the  history  of  the 
Church,  that  a  man  may,  even  when  well  on  in 
years,  give  up  everything  to  which  his  life  has 
been  so  far  directed,  and  from  a  sense  of  duty 
devote  himself  entirely  to  the  attainment  of  "the 
one  thing  necessary."  Linacre  appears  only  to 
have  done  what  many  another  in  the  history  of 


82  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries 
did  without  any  comment;  but  his  English  biog- 
raphers insist  on  seeing  ulterior  motives  in  it,  or 
else  fail  entirely  to  understand  it.  The  same 
action  is  not  so  rare  even  in  our  own  day  that  it 
should  be  the  source  of  misconception  by  later 
writers. 

Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell  has,  in  the  early  part  of 
Dr.  North  and  His  Friends,  a  very  curious 
passage  with  regard  to  Linacre.  One  of  the 
characters,  St.  Clair,  says :  "  I  saw,  the  other 
day,  at  Owen's,  a  life  of  one  Linacre,  a  doctor, 
who  had  the  luck  to  live  about  1460  to  1524, 
when  men  knew  little  and  thought  they  knew  all. 
In  his  old  age  he  took  for  novelty  to  reading  St. 
Matthew.  The  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  chapters 
were  enough.  He  threw  the  book  aside  and 
cried  out,  '  Either  this  is  not  the  Gospel,  or  we 
are  not  Christians.'  What  else  could  he  say?" 
St.  Clair  uses  the  story  to  enforce  an  idea  of  his 
own,  which  he  states  as  a  question,  as  follows : 
"And  have  none  of  you  the  courage  to  wrestle 
with  the  thought  I  gave  you,  that  Christ  could 
not  have  expected  the  mass  of  men  to  live  the 
life  He  pointed  out  as  desirable  for  the  first  dis- 
ciples of  His  faith?" 

Dr.  Mitchell's  anecdote  is  not  accepted  by  Lin- 
acre's  biographers  generally,  though  it  is  copied 
by  Dr.  Payne,  the  writer  of  the  article  on  Lin- 
acre in  the  (English)  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography,  who,  however,  discredits  it  some- 
what.    The  story  is  founded  on  Sir  John  Cheke's 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     83 

account  of  the  conversion  of  Linacre.  It  is  very- 
doubtful,  however,  whether  Linacre's  depreca- 
tions of  the  actions  of  Christians  had  reference 
to  anything  more  than  the  practice  of  false  swear- 
ing so  forcibly  denounced  in  the  Scriptures, 
which  had  apparently  become  frequent  in  his 
time.  This  is  Selden's  version  of  the  story  as 
quoted  by  Dr.  Johnson,  who  was  Linacre's  well- 
known  biographer.  Sir  John  Cheke  in  his  ac- 
count seems  to  hint  that  this  chance  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  represented  the  first  occasion  Lin- 
acre had  ever  taken  of  an  opportunity  to  read 
the  New  Testament.  Perhaps  we  are  expected 
to  believe  that,  following  the  worn-out  Protes- 
tant tradition  of  the  old  Church's  discouraging 
of  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the  extreme 
scarcity  of  copies  of  the  Book,  this  was  the  first 
time  he  had  ever  had  a  good  opportunity  to  read 
it.     This,  of  course,  is  nonsense. 

Linacre's  early  education  had  been  obtained  at 
the  school  of  the  monastery  of  Christ  Church  at 
Canterbury,  and  the  monastery  schools  all  used 
the  New  Testament  as  a  text-book,  and  as  the 
offices  of  the  day  at  which  the  students  were  re- 
quired to  attend  contain  these  very  passages  from 
Matthew  which  Linacre  is  supposed  to  have  read 
for  the  first  time  later  in  life,  this  idea  is  pre- 
posterous. Besides,  Linacre,  as  one  of  the  great 
scholars  of  his  time,  intimate  friend  of  Sir 
Thomas  More,  of  Dean  Colet,  and  Erasmus,  can 
scarcely  be  thought  to  find  his  first  copy  of  the 
Bible  only  when  advanced  in  years.     This  is  evi- 


84  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

dently  a  post-Reformation  addition,  part  of  the 
Protestant  tradition  with  regard  to  the  supposed 
suppression  of  the  Scriptures  in  pre-Reformation 
days,  which  every  one  acknowledges  now  to  be 
without  foundation. 

Linacre,  as  many  another  before  and  since, 
seems  only  to  have  realized  the  true  significance 
of  the  striking  passages  in  Matthew  after  life's 
experiences  and  disappointments  had  made  him 
take  more  seriously  the  clauses  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount.  There  is  much  in  fifth,  sixth, 
and  seventh  Matthew  that  might  disturb  the  com- 
placent equanimity  of  a  man  whose  main  objects 
in  life,  though  pursued  with  all  honorable  un- 
selfishness, had  been  the  personal  satisfaction  of 
wide  scholarship  and  success  in  his  chosen  pro- 
fession. 

With  regard  to  Sir  John  Cheke's  story,  Dr. 
John  Noble  Johnson,  who  wrote  the  life  of 
Thomas  Linacre,1  which  is  accepted  as  the 
authoritative  biography  by  all  subsequent  writers,, 
says :  "  The  whole  statement  carries  with  it  an 
air  of  invention,  if  not  on  the  part  of  Cheke 
himself,  at  least  on  that  of  the  individual  from 
whom  he  derives  it.   and  it  is  refuted  by  Lin- 

1 "  The  Life  of  Thomas  Linacre,"  Doctor  in  Medi- 
cine, Physician  to  King  Henry  VIII,  the  Tutor  and 
Friend  of  Sir  Thomas  More  and  the  Founder  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  in  London.  By  John  Noble  John- 
son, M.  D.,  late  Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physi- 
cians, London.  Edited  by  Robert  Graves,  of  the  Inner 
Temple,  Barrister  at  Law.  London :  Edward  Lumley* 
Chancery  Lane.     1835. 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     85 

acre's  known  habits  of  moderation  and  the  many 
ecclesiastical  friendships  which,  with  a  single  ex- 
ception, were  preserved  without  interruption 
until  his  death.  It  was  a  most  frequent  mode  of 
silencing  opposition  to  the  received  and  estab- 
lished tenets  of  the  Church,  when  arguments 
were  wanting,  to  brand  the  impugner  with  the 
opprobrious  titles  of  heretic  and  infidel,  the  com- 
mon resource  of  the  enemies  to  innovation  in 
every  age  and  country." 

The  interesting  result  of  the  reflections  in- 
spired in  Linacre  by  the  reading  of  Matthew 
was,  as  has  been  said,  the  resignation  of  his  high 
office  of  Royal  Physician  and  the  surrender  of 
his  wealth  for  the  foundation  of  chairs  in  Medi- 
cine and  Greek  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  With 
the  true  liberal  spirit  of  a  man  who  wished  to 
accomplish  as  much  good  as  possible,  his  foun- 
dations were  not  limited  to  his  own  University 
of  Oxford.  After  these  educational  foundations, 
however,  his  wealth  was  applied  to  the  endow- 
ment of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  and  its 
library,  and  to  the  provision  of  such  accessories 
as  might  be  expected  to  make  the  College  a  per- 
manently useful  institution,  though  left  at  the 
same  time  perfectly  capable  of  that  evolution 
which  would  suit  it  to  subsequent  times  and  the 
development  of  the  science  and  practice  of  med- 
icine. 

It  is  evident  that  the  life  of  such  a  man  can 
scarcely  fail  to  be  of  personal  as  well  as  historic 
interest. 


86  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

Thomas  Linacre  was  born  about  1460 — the 
year  is  uncertain — at  Canterbury.  Nothing  is 
known  of  his  parents  or  their  condition,  though 
this  very  silence  in  their  regard  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  they  were  poor  and  obscure.  His 
education  was  obtained  at  the  school  of  the 
monastery  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  then 
presided  over  by  the  famous  William  Selling,  the 
first  of  the  great  students  of  the  new  learning  in 
England.  Selling's  interest  seems  to  have  helped 
Linacre  to  get  to  Oxford,  where  he  entered  at 
All  Souls'  College  in  1480.  In  1484  he  was 
elected  a  Fellow  of  the  College,  and  seems  to 
have  distinguished  himself  in  Greek,  to  which 
he  applied  himself  with  special  assiduity  under 
Cornelio  Vitelli.  Though  Greek  is  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  having  been  introduced  into  West- 
ern Europe  only  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  Linacre  undoubtedly  laid  the 
foundation  of  that  remarkable  knowledge  of  the 
language  which  he  displayed  at  a  later  period  of 
his  life,  during  his  student  days  at  Oxford  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Linacre  went  to  Italy  under  the  most  auspic- 
ious circumstances.  His  old  tutor  and  friend  at 
Canterbury,  Selling,  who  had  become  one  of  the 
leading  ecclesiastics  of  England,  was  sent  to 
Rome  as  an  Ambassador  by  Henry  VII.  He 
took  Linacre  with  him.  A  number  of  English 
scholars  had  recently  been  in  Italy  and  had 
attracted  attention  by  their  geniality,  by  their 
thorough-going    devotion    to    scholarly    studies, 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     87 

and  by  their  success  in  their  work.  Selling  him- 
self had  made  a  number  of  firm  friends  among 
the  Italian  students  of  the  New  Learning  on  a 
former  visit,  and  they  now  welcomed  him  with 
enthusiasm  and  were  ready  to  receive  his  pro- 
tege with  goodwill  and  provide  him  with  the 
best  opportunities  for  study.  As  a  member  of 
the  train  of  the  English  ambassador,  Linacre  had 
an  entree  to  political  circles  that  proved  of  great 
service  to  him,  and  put  him  on  a  distinct  footing 
above  that  of  the  ordinary  English  student  in 
Italy. 

Partly  because  of  these  and  partly  because  of 
his  own  interesting  and  attractive  personal  char- 
acter, Linacre  had  a  number  of  special  oppor- 
tunities promptly  placed  at  his  disposal.  Church 
dignitaries  in  Rome  welcomed  him  and  he  was 
at  once  received  into  scholarly  circles  wherever 
he  went  in  Italy.  Almost  as  soon  as  he  arrived 
in  Florence,  where  he  expected  seriously  to  take 
up  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek,  he  became  the 
intimate  friend  of  the  family  of  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici,  who  was  so  charmed  with  his  personality 
and  his  readily  recognizable  talent  that  he  chose 
him  for  the  companion  of  his  son's  studies  and 
received  him  into  his  own  household. 

Politian  was  at  this  time  the  tutor  of  the 
young  de'  Medici  in  Latin,  and  Demetrius  Chal- 
condylas  the  tutor  in  Greek.  Under  these  two 
eminent  scholars  Linacre  obtained  a  knowledge 
of  Latin  and  Greek  such  as  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  have  obtained  under  any  other  cir- 


88  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

cumstances,  and  which  with  his  talents  at  once 
stamped  him  as  one  of  the  foremost  humanistic 
scholars  in  Europe.  While  in  Florence  he  came 
in  contact  with  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent's 
younger  son,  who  afterwards  became  Leo  X. 
The  friendship  thus  formed  lasted  all  during 
Linacre's  lifetime,  and  later  on  he  dedicated  at 
least  one  of  his  books  to  Alexander  de'  Medici 
after  the  latter's  elevation  to  the  papal  throne. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Linacre  always  looked 
back  on  Italy  as  the  Alma  Mater — the  fond 
mother  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term — to  whom 
he  owed  his  precious  opportunities  for  education 
and  the  broadest  possible  culture.  In  after-life 
the  expression  of  his  feelings  was  often  tinged 
with  romantic  tenderness.  It  is  said  that  when 
he  was  crossing  the  Alps,  on  his  homeward  jour- 
ney, leaving  Italy  after  finishing  his  years  of 
apprenticeship  of  study,  standing  on  the  highest 
point  of  the  mountains  from  which  he  could  still 
see  the  Italian  plains,  he  built  with  his  own 
hands  a  rough  altar  of  stone  and  dedicated  it  to 
the  land  of  his  studies — the  land  in  which  he  had 
spent  six  happy  years — under  the  fond  title  of 
Sancta  Mater  Studiorum. 

At  first,  after  his  return  from  Italy,  Linacre 
lectured  on  Greek  at  Oxford.  Something  of  the 
influence  acquired  over  English  students  and  the 
good  he  accomplished  may  be  appreciated  from 
the  fact  that  with  Grocyn  he  had  such  students 
as  More  and  the  famous  Dean  Colet.  Erasmus 
also   was    attracted    from   the    Netherlands   and 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     89 

studied  Greek  under  Linacre,  to  whom  he  refers 
in  the  most  kindly  and  appreciative  terms  many 
times  in  his  after  life.  Linacre  wrote  books  be- 
sides lecturing,  and  his  work  on  certain  fine 
points  in  the  grammar  of  classical  Latinity  proved 
a  revelation  to  English  students  of  the  old  clas- 
sical languages,  for  nothing  so  advanced  as  this 
had  ever  before  been  attempted  outside  Italy. 
In  one  of  the  last  years  of  the  fifteenth  century 
Linacre  was  appointed  tutor  to  Prince  Arthur, 
the  elder  brother  of  Henry  VIII,  to  whom  it  will 
be  remembered  that  Catherine  of  Aragon  had 
been  betrothed  before  her  marriage  with  Henry. 
Arthur's  untimely  death,  however,  soon  put  an 
end  to  Linacres'  tutorship. 

As  pointed  out  by  Einstein,  the  reputation  of 
Grocyn  and  Linacre  was  not  confined  to  Eng- 
land, but  soon  spread  all  over  the  Continent. 
After  the  death  of  the  great  Italian  humanists  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  who  had  no  worthy  succes- 
sors in  the  Italian  peninsula,  these  two  men  be- 
came the  principal  European  representatives  of 
the  New  Learning.  There  were  other  distin- 
guished men,  however,  such  as  Vives,  the  Span- 
iard; Lascaris,  the  Greek;  Buda,  or  Budaeus,  the 
Frenchman,  and  Erasmus,  whom  we  have  al- 
ready mentioned — all  of  whom  joined  at  various 
times  in  praising  Linacre. 

Some  of  Linacre's  books  were  published  by 
the  elder  Aldus  at  Venice;  and  Aldus  is  even 
said  to  have  sent  his  regrets  on  publishing  his 
edition  of  Linacre's  translation  of  "  The  Sphere 


90  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

of  Proclus,"  that  the  distinguished  English  hu- 
manist had  not  forwarded  him  others  of  his 
works  to  print.  Aldus  appreciatively  added  the 
hope  that  the  eloquence  and  classic  severity  of 
style  in  Linacre's  works  and  in  those  of  the 
English  humanists  generally  "  might  shame  the 
Italian  philosophers  and  scholars  out  of  their  un- 
cultured methods  of  writing." 

Augusta  Theodosia  Drane  (Mother  Raphael), 
in  her  book  on  "  Christian  Schools  and  Schol- 
ars," gives  a  very  pleasant  picture  of  how 
Dean  Colet,  Eramus,  and  More  used  at  this 
time  to  spend  their  afternoons  down  at  Stepney 
(then  a  very  charming  suburb  of  London),  of 
whose  parish  church  Colet  was  the  vicar.  They 
stopped  at  Colet's  house  and  were  entertained 
by  his  mother,  to  whom  we  find  pleasant  refer- 
ences in  the  letters  that  passed  between  these 
scholars.  Linacre  was  also  often  of  the  party, 
and  the  conversations  between  these  greatest  stu- 
dents and  literary  geniuses  of  their  age  would 
indeed  be  interesting  reading,  if  we  could  only 
have  had  preserved  for  us,  in  some  way,  the 
table-talk  of  those  afternoons.  Erasmus  partic- 
ularly was  noted  for  his  wit  and  for  his  ability  to 
turn  aside  any  serious  discussions  that  might 
arise  among  his  friends,  so  as  to  prevent  any- 
think  like  unpleasant  argument  in  their  friendly 
intercourse.  A  favorite  way  seems  to  have  been 
to  insist  on  telling  one  of  the  old  jokes  from  a 
classic  author  whose  origin  would  naturally  be 
presumed  to  be  much  later  than  the  date  the 
New  Learning  had  found  for  it. 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     91 

Dean  Colet's  mother  appears  to  have  been 
much  more  than  merely  the  conventional  hostess. 
Erasmus  sketches  her  in  her  ninetieth  year  with 
her  countenance  still  so  fair  and  cheerful  that 
you  would  think  she  had  never  shed  a  tear.  Her 
son  tells  in  some  of  his  letters  to  Erasmus  and 
More  of  how  much  his  mother  liked  his  visitors 
and  how  agreeable  she  found  their  talk  and  witty 
conversation.  They  seem  to  have  appreciated 
her  in  turn,  for  in  Mother  Raphael's  chapter  on 
English  Scholars  of  the  Renaissance  there  is 
something  of  a  description  of  her  garden,  in 
which  were  to  be  found  strawberries,  lately 
brought  from  Holland,  some  of  the  finer  varieties 
of  which  Mrs.  Colet  possessed  through  Eras- 
mus's acquaintance  in  that  country.  Mrs.  Colet 
also  had  some  of  the  damask  roses  that  had  lately 
been  introduced  into  England  by  Linacre,  who 
was  naturally  anxious  that  the  mother  of  his 
friend  should  have  the  opportunity  to  raise  some 
of  the  beautiful  flowers  he  was  so  much  inter- 
ested in  domesticating  in  England. 

It  is  a  very  charming  picture,  this,  of  the 
early  humanists  in  England,  and  very  different 
from  what  might  easily  be  imagined  by  those 
unfamiliar  with  the  details  of  the  life  of  the 
period.  Linacre  was  later  to  give  up  his  worldly 
emoluments  and  honors  and  become  a  clergyman, 
in  order  to  do  good  and  at  the  same  time  satisfy 
his  own  craving  for  self-abnegation.  More  was 
to  rise  to  the  highest  positions  in  England,  and 
then   for   conscience'   sake  was  to   suffer   death 


92  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

rather  than  yield  to  the  wishes  of  his  king  in  a 
matter  in  which  he  saw  principle  involved.  Dean 
Colet  himself  was  to  be  the  ornament  of  the 
English  clergy  and  the  model  of  the  scholar 
clergyman  of  the  eve  of  the  Reformation,  to 
whom  many  generations  were  to  look  back  as  a 
worthy  object  of  reverence.  Erasmus  was  to 
become  involved  first  with  and  then  against 
Luther,  and  to  be  offered  a  cardinal's  hat  before 
his  death.  His  work,  like  Newman's,  was  done 
entirely  in  the  intellectual  field.  Meantime,  in 
the  morning  of  life,  all  of  them  were  enjoying 
the  pleasures  of  friendly  intercourse  and  the 
charms  of  domestic  felicity  under  circumstances 
that  showed  that  their  study  of  humanism  and 
their  admiration  for  the  classics  impaired  none 
of  their  sympathetic  humanity  or  their  apprecia- 
tion of  the  innocent  delights  of  the  present. 

For  us,  however,  Linacre's  most  interesting  bio- 
graphic details  are  those  which  relate  to  medicine, 
for,  besides  his  humanistic  studies  while  in  Italy, 
Linacre  graduated  in  medicine,  obtaining  the  de- 
gree of  doctor  at  Padua.  The  memory  of  the 
brilliant  disputation  which  he  sustained  in  the 
presence  of  the  medical  faculty  in  order  to  obtain 
his  degree  is  still  one  of  the  precious  traditions 
in  the  medical  school  of  Padua.  He  does  not 
seem  to  have  considered  his  medical  education 
finished,  however,  by  the  mere  fact  of  having 
obtained  his  doctor's  degree,  and  there  is  a  tra- 
dition of  his  having  studied  later  at  Vicenza 
under  Nicholas  Leonicenus,  the  most  celebrated 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     93 

physician  and  scholar  in  Italy  at  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  who  many  years  afterwards 
referred  with  pardonable  pride  to  the  fact  that 
he  had  been  Linacre' s  teacher  in  medicine. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  many  that  Linacre, 
with  all  his  knowledge  of  the  classics,  should 
have  devoted  himself  for  so  many  years  to  the 
study  of  medicine  in  addition  to  his  humanistic 
studies.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that 
the  revival  of  the  classics  of  Latin  and  Greek 
brought  with  it  a  renewed  knowledge  of  the 
great  Latin  and  Greek  fathers  of  medicine,  Hip- 
pocrates and  Galen.  This  had  a  wonderful  effect 
in  inspiring  the  medical  students  of  the  time  with 
renewed  enthusiasm  for  the  work  in  which  they 
v/ere  engaged.  A  knowledge  of  the  classics  led 
to  the  restoration  of  the  study  of  anatomy,  bot- 
any, and  of  clinical  medicine,  which  had  been 
neglected  in  the  midst  of  application  to  the  Ara- 
bian writers  in  medicine  during  the  preceding 
centuries.  The  restoration  of  the  classics  made 
of  medicine  a  progressive  science  in  which  every 
student  felt  the  possibility  of  making  great  dis- 
coveries that  would  endure  not  only  for  his  own 
reputation  but  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 

These  thoughts  seem  to  have  attracted  many 
promising  young  men  to  the  study  of  medicine. 
The  result  was  a  period  of  writing  and  active 
observation  in  medicine  that  undoubtedly  makes 
this  one  of  the  most  important  of  literary  medical 
eras.  Some  idea  of  the  activity  of  the  writers 
of  the  time  can  be  gathered  from  the  important 


94  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

medical  books  —  most  of  them  large  folios  — 
which  were  printed  during  the  last  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century  in  Italy.  There  is  a  series  of 
these  books  to  be  seen  in  one  of  the  cases  of  the 
library  of  the  Surgeon-General  at  Washington, 
which,  though  by  no  means  complete,  must  be  a 
source  of  never-ending  surprise  to  those  who  are 
apt  to  think  of  this  period  as  a  saison  morte  in 
medical  literature. 

There  must  have  been  an  extremely  great  in- 
terest in  medicine  to  justify  all  this  printing. 
Some  of  the  books  are  among  the  real  incunabula 
of  the  art  of  printing.  For  instance,  in  1474 
there  was  published  at  Bologna  De  Manfredi's 
"  Liber  de  Homine ;"  at  Venice,  in  1476,  Petrus 
de  Albano's  work  on  medicine ;  and  in  the  next 
twenty  years  from  the  same  home  of  printing 
there  came  large  tomes  by  Angelata,  a  transla- 
tion of  Celsus,  and  Aurelius  Cornelius  and 
Articellus's  "  Thesaurus  Medicorum  Veterum," 
besides  several  translations  of  Avicenna  and  Pla- 
tina's  work  "  De  Honesta  Voluptate  et  Valetu- 
dine."  At  Ferrara,  Arculanus's  great  work  was 
published,  while  at  Modena  there  appeared  the 
"  Hortus  Sanitatis,"  or  Garden  of  Health,  whose 
author  was  J.  Cuba.  There  were  also  transla- 
tions from  other  Arabian  authors  on  medicine  in 
addition  to  Avicenna,  notably  a  translation  of 
Rhazes  Abu  Bekr  Muhammed  Ben  Zankariah 
Abrazi,  a  distinguished  writer  among  the  Ara- 
bian physicians  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Linacre's  translations  of  Galen  remain  still  the 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     95 

standard,  and  they  have  been  reprinted  many 
times.  As  Erasmus  once  wrote  to  a  friend,  in 
sending  some  of  these  books  of  Galen,  "  I  pre- 
sent you  with  the  works  of  Galen,  now  by  the 
help  of  Linacre  speaking  better  Latin  than  they 
ever  before  spoke  Greek."  Linacre  also  trans- 
lated Aristotle  into  Latin,  and  Erasmus  paid 
them  the  high  compliment  of  saying  that  Lin- 
acre's  Latin  was  as  lucid,  as  straightforward, 
and  as  thoroughly  intelligible  as  was  Aristotle's 
Greek.  Of  the  translations  of  Aristotle  unfor- 
tunately none  is  extant.  Of  Galen  we  have  the 
"De  Sanitate  Tuenda,"  the  "  Methodus  Me- 
dendi,"  the  "  De  Symptomatum  DifTerentiis  et 
Causis,"  and  the  "  De  Pulsuum  Usu."  The  latter 
particularly  is  a  noteworthy  monograph  on  an 
important  subject,  in  which  Galen's  observations 
were  of  great  value.  Under  the  title,  "  The 
Significance  of  the  Pulse,"  it  has  been  translated 
into  English,  and  has  influenced  many  genera- 
tions of  English  medical  men. 

While  we  have  very  few  remains  of  Linacre's 
work  as  a  physician,  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt 
that  he  was  considered  by  all  those  best  capable 
of  judging,  to  stand  at  the  head  of  his  profession 
in  England.  To  his  care,  as  one  of  his  biog- 
raphers remarked,  was  committed  the  health  of 
the  foremost  in  Church  and  State.  Besides  be- 
ing the  Royal  Physician,  he  was  the  regular 
medical  attendant  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  of  Arch- 
bishop Warham,  the  Primate  of  England,  of 
Richard  Fox,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  the  Keeper 


96  CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

of  the  Privy  Seal,  and  of  Sir  Reginald  Bray, 
Knight  of  the  Garter  and  Lord  High  Treasurer, 
and  of  all  of  the  famous  scholars  of  England. 

Erasmus,  whilst  absent  in  France,  writes  to 
give  him  an  account  of  his  feelings,  and  begs 
him  to  prescribe  for  him,  as  he  knows  no  one 
else  to  whom  he  can  turn  with  equal  confidence. 
After  a  voyage  across  the  channel,  during  which 
he  had  been  four  days  at  sea — making  a  passage 
by  the  way  that  now  takes  less  than  two  hours — 
Erasmus  describes  his  condition,  his  headache, 
with  the  glands  behind  his  ears  swollen,  his 
temples  throbbing,  a  constant  buzzing  in  his  ears  ; 
and  laments  that  no  Linacre  was  at  hand  to  re- 
store him  to  health  by  skilful  advice.  In  a  sub- 
sequent letter  he  writes  from  Paris  to  ask  for  a 
copy  of  a  prescription  given  him  while  in  Lon- 
don by  Linacre,  but  which  a  stupid  servant  had 
left  at  the  apothecary  shop,  so  that  Erasmus 
could  not  have  it  filled  in  Paris. 

An  instance  of  his  skill  in  prognosis,  the  most 
difficult  part  of  the  practice  of  medicine  accord- 
ing to  Hippocrates  and  all  subsequent  author- 
ities, is  cited  by  all  his  biographers,  with  regard 
to  his  friend  William  Lily,  the  grammarian. 
Lily  was  suffering  from  a  malignant  tumor  in- 
volving the  hip,  which  surgeons  in  consultation 
had  decided  should  be  removed.  Linacre  plainly 
foretold  that  its  removal  would  surely  prove 
fatal,  and  the  event  verified  his  unfavorable  prog- 
nosis. Generally  it  seems  to  have  been  consid- 
ered that  his  opinion  was  of  great  value  in  all 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     97 

serious  matters,  and  it  was  eagerly  sought  for. 
Some  of  the  nobility  and  clergy  of  the  time  came 
even  from  the  Continent  over  to  England — by 
no  means  an  easy  journe}^,  even  for  a  healthy 
man  in  those  days,  as  can  be  appreciated  from 
Erasmus's  experience  just  cited — in  order  to  ob- 
tain Linacre's  opinion. 

One  of  Erasmus's  letters  to  Billibaldus  Pirck- 
heimer  contains  a  particular  account  of  the 
method  of  treatment  by  which  he  was  relieved  of 
his  severe  pain  under  Linacre's  direction  in  a 
very  tormenting  attack  of  renal  colic.  The  de- 
tails, especially  the  use  of  poultice  applications  as 
hot  as  could  be  borne,  show  that  Linacre  thor- 
oughly understood  the  use  of  heat  in  the  relaxa- 
tion of  spasm,  while  his  careful  preparation  of 
the  remedies  to  be  employed  in  the  presence  of 
the  patient  himself  would  seem  to  show  that  he 
had  a  very  high  appreciation  of  how  much  the 
mental  state  of  the  patient  and  the  attitude  of 
expectancy  thus  awakened  may  have  in  giving 
relief  even  in  cases  of  severe  pain. 

The  only  medical  writings  of  Linacre's  that  we 
possess  are  translations.  We  have  said  already 
that  the  reversion  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury to  the  classical  authorities  in  medicine  un- 
doubtedly did  much  to  introduce  the  observant 
phase  of  medical  science,  which  had  its  highest 
expression  in  Vesalius  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  and  continued  to  flourish  so 
fruitfully  during  the  next  two  centuries  at  most 
of  the  Italian  universities.     His  translations  then 


98  CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

were  of  themselves  more  suggestive  contributions 
to  medicine  than  would  perhaps  have  been  any- 
even  of  his  original  observations,  since  the  mind 
of  his  generation  was  not  ready  as  yet  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  discoveries  made  by  contemporaries. 

The  best  proof  of  Linacre's  great  practical  in- 
terest in  medicine  is  his  realization  of  the  need 
for  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  and  his 
arrangements  for  it. 

The  Roll  of  the  College,  which  comprises  bio- 
graphical sketches  of  all  the  eminent  physicians 
whose  names  are  recorded  in  the  annals  from 
the  foundation  of  the  College  in  15 18,  and  is 
published  under  the  authority  of  the  College 
itself,  contains  the  best  tribute  to  Linacre's  work 
that  can  possibly  be  paid.  It  says :  "  The  most 
magnificent  of  Linacre's  labors  was  the  design 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  of  London — 
a  standing  monument  of  the  enlightened  views 
and  generosity  of  its  projectors.  In  the  execu- 
tion of  it  Linacre  stood  alone,  for  the  munificence 
of  the  Crown  was  limited  to  a  grant  of  letters 
patent ;  whilst  the  expenses  and  provision  of  the 
College  was  left  to  be  defrayed  out  of  his  own 
means,  or  of  those  who  were  associated  with  him 
in  its  foundation."  "In  the  year  1518,"  says 
Dr.  Johnson,1  "  when  Linacre's  scheme  was  car- 
ried into  effect,  the  practice  of  medicine  was 
scarcely  elevated  above  that  of  the  mechanical 
arts,  nor  was  the  majority  of  its  practitioners 

1  Life  of  Linacre,  London,  1835. 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest     99 

among  the  laity  better  instructed  than  the  me- 
chanics by  whom  these  arts  were  exercised. 
With  the  diffusion  of  learning  to  the  republics 
and  states  of  Italy,  establishments  solely  for  the 
advancement  of  science  had  been  formed  with 
success ;  but  no  society  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  learning  yet  existed  in  England,  unfettered  by 
a  union  with  the  hierarchy,  or  exempted  from 
the  rigors  and  seclusions  which  were  imposed 
upon  its  members  as  the  necessary  obligation  of 
a  monastic  and  religious  life.  In  reflecting  on 
the  advantages  which  had  been  derived  from 
these  institutions,  Linacre  did  not  forget  the  im- 
possibility of  adapting  rules  and  regulations 
which  accorded  with  the  state  of  society  in  the 
Middle  Ages  to  the  improved  state  of  learning 
in  his  own,  and  his  plans  were  avowedly  modelled 
on  some  similar  community  of  which  many  cities 
of  Italy  afforded  rather  striking  examples." 

Some  idea  of  the  state  into  which  the  practice 
of  medicine  had  fallen  in  England  before  Lin- 
acre's  foundation  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physi- 
cians may  be  gathered  from  the  words  of  the 
charter  of  the  College.  "  Before  this  period  a 
great  multitude  of  ignorant  persons,  of  whom 
the  greater  part  had  no  insight  into  physic,  nor 
into  any  other  kind  of  learning — some  could  not 
even  read  the  letters  on  the  book,  so  far  forth 
that  common  artificers  as  smiths,  weavers  and 
women — boldly  and  accustomably  took  upon  them 
great  cures  to  the  high  displeasure  of  God,  great 
infamy  to  the   faculty,  and  the  grievous  hurt, 


IOO         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

damage,  and  destruction  of  many  of  the  King's 
liege  people." 

After  the  foundation  of  the  College  there  was 
a  definite  way  of  deciding  formally  who  were,  or 
were  not,  legally  licensed  to  practise.  As  a  con- 
sequence, when  serious  malpractice  came  to  public 
notice,  those  without  a  license  were  occasionally 
treated  in  the  most  summary  manner.  Stowe,  in 
his  chronicles,  gives  a  very  vivid  and  picturesque 
description  of  the  treatment  of  one  of  these 
quacks  who  had  been  especially  flagrant  in  his 
imposition  upon  the  people.  A  counterfeit  doc- 
tor was  set  on  horseback,  his  face  to  the  horse's 
tail,  the  tail  being  forced  into  his  hand  as  a  bridle, 
a  collar  of  jordans  about  his  neck,  a  whetstone 
on  his  breast,  and  so  led  through  the  city  of 
London  with  ringing  of  basins,  and  banished. 
"  Such  deceivers,"  continued  the  old  chronicler, 
"  no  doubt  are  many,  who  being  never  trained 
up  in  reading  or  practice  of  physics  and  Chirur- 
gery  do  boast  to  do  great  cures,  especially  upon 
women,  as  to  make  them  straight  that  before 
were  crooked,  corbed,  or  crumped  in  any  part  of 
their  bodies  and  other  such  things.  But  the  con- 
trary is  true.  For  some  have  received  gold 
when  they  have  better  deserved  the  whetstone."  1 
Human  nature  has  not  changed  very  much  in  the 

1 "  To  get  the  whetstone "  is  an  old  English  expres- 
sion, meaning  to  take  the  prize  for  lying.  It  is  derived 
from  the  old  custom  of  driving  rogues,  whose  wits  were 
too  sharp,  out  of  town  with  a  whetstone  around  their 
necks. 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest      ioi 

four  centuries  since  Linacre's  foundation,  and 
while  the  model  that  he  set  in  the  matter  of  pro- 
viding a  proper  licensing  body  for  physicians  has 
done  something  to  lessen  the  evils  complained  of, 
the  abuses  still  remain ;  and  the  old  chronicler 
will  find  in  our  time  not  a  few  who,  in  his 
opinion,  might  deserve  the  whetstone.  We  can 
scarcely  realize  how  much  Linacre  accomplished 
by  means  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  or 
how  great  was  the  organizing  spirit  of  the  man 
to  enable  him  to  recognize  the  best  way  out  of 
the  chaos  of  medical  practice  in  his  time. 

"  The  wisdom  of  Linacre's  plan,"  wrote  Dr. 
Friend,  "  speaks  for  itself.  His  scheme,  with- 
out doubt,  was  not  only  to  create  a  good  under- 
standing and  unanimity  among  his  own  profes- 
sion (which  of  itself  was  an  excellent  thought), 
but  to  make  them  more  useful  to  the  public. 
And  he  imagined  that  by  separating  them  from 
the  vulgar  empirics  and  setting  them  upon  such 
a  reputable  foot  of  distinction,  there  would  al- 
ways arise  a  spirit  of  emulation  among  men  liber- 
ally educated,  which  would  animate  them  in  pur- 
suing their  inquiries  into  the  nature  of  diseases 
and  the  methods  of  cure  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind ;  and  perhaps  no  founder  ever  had  the  good 
fortune  to  have  his  designs  succeed  more  to  his 
wish." 

His  plans  with  regard  to  the  teaching  of  medi- 
cine at  the  two  great  English  Universities  did 
not  succeed  so  well,  but  that  was  the  fault  not  of 
Linacre  nor  of  the  directions  left  in  his  will,  but 


102         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

of  the  times,  which  were  awry  for  educational 
matters.  Notwithstanding  Linacre's  bequest  of 
funds  for  two  professorships  at  Oxford  and  one 
at  Cambridge,  it  is  typical  of  the  times  that  the 
chairs  were  not  founded  for  many  years.  Dur- 
ing Henry  VIII's  time,  the  great  effort  of  gov- 
ernment was  not  to  encourage  new  foundations 
but  to  break  up  old  ones,  in  order  to  obtain 
money  for  the  royal  treasury,  so  that  educational 
institutions  of  all  kinds  suffered  eclipse.  The 
first  formal  action  with  regard  to  the  Linacre  be- 
quest was  taken  in  the  third  year  of  Edward  VI. 
Two  lectureships  were  established  in  Merton  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  and  one  in  St.  John's  College, 
Cambridge.  Linacre's  idea  had  been  that  these 
foundations  should  be  University  lectureships, 
but  Anthony  Wood  says  that  the  University  had 
lost  in  prestige  so  much  during  Henry  VIII's 
time  that  it  was  considered  preferable  to  attach 
the  lectureships  to  Merton  College,  which  had 
considerable  reputation  because  of  its  medical 
school.  During  Elizabeth's  time  these  Linacre 
lectureships  sank  to  be  sinecures  and  for  nearly 
a  hundred  years  served  but  for  the  support  of  a 
fellowship.  The  Oxford  foundation  was  revived 
in  1856  by  the  University  Commissioners,  and 
the  present  splendid  foundation  of  the  lectures  in 
physiology  bears  Linacre's  name  in  honor  of  his 
original  grant. 

At  the  age  of  about  fifty  Linacre  was  ordained 
priest.  His  idea  in  becoming  a  clergyman,  as 
confessed  in  letters  to  his  friends,  was  partly  in 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest      103 


order  to  obtain  leisure  for  his  favorite  studies, 
but  also  out  of  the  desire  to  give  himself  up  to 
something  other  than  the  mere  worldly  pursuits 
in  which  he  had  been  occupied  during  all  his  pre- 
vious life.  His  biographer,  Dr.  Johnson,  says: 
"  In  examining  the  motives  of  this  choice  of 
Linacre's,  it  would  seem  that  he  was  guided  less 
by  the  expectation  of  dignity  and  preferment 
than  by  the  desire  of  retirement  and  of  rendering 
himself  acquainted  with  those  writings  which 
might  afford  him  consolation  in  old  age  and  re- 
lief from  the  infirmities  which  a  life  of  assiduous 
study  and  application  had  tended  to  produce." 

The  precise  time  of  Linacre's  ordination  is  not 
known,  nor  is  it  certain  whether  he  was  ordained 
by  Archbishop  Warham  of  Canterbury,  or  by 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  the  Archbishop  of  York.  He 
received  his  first  clerical  appointment  from  War- 
ham,  by  whom  he  was  collated  to  the  rectory  of 
Mersham  in  Kent.  He  held  this  place  scarcely 
a  month,  but  his  resignation  was  followed  by  his 
installation  as  prebend  in  the  Cathedral  of  Wells, 
and  by  an  admission  to  the  Church  of  Hawkhurst 
in  Kent,  which  he  held  until  the  year  of  his  death. 
Seven  years  later  he  was  made  prebend  in  the 
Collegiate  Chapel  of  St.  Stephen,  Westminster, 
and  in  the  following  year  he  became  prebendary 
of  South  Newbold  in  the  Church  of  York.  This 
was  in  the  year  15 18.  In  the  following  year  he 
received  the  dignified  and  lucrative  appointment 
of  presentor  to  the  Cathedral  of  York,  for  which 
he  was  indebted  to  Cardinal  Wolsey,  to  whom 


104         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

about  this  time  he  dedicated  his  translation  of 
Galen  "  On  the  Use  of  the  Pulse."  He  seems 
also  to  have  held  several  other  benefices  during 
the  later  years  of  his  life,  although  some  of  them 
were  resigned  within  so  short  a  time  as  to  make 
it  difficult  to  understand  why  he  should  have 
accepted  them,  since  the  expenses  of  institution 
must  have  exceeded  the  profits  which  were  de- 
rived from  them  during  the  period  of  possession. 

Linacre  owed  his  clerical  opportunities  during 
the  last  years  of  his  life  particularly  to  Arch- 
bishop Warham,  who,  as  ambassador,  primate, 
and  chancellor,  occupied  a  large  and  honorable 
place  in  the  history  of  the  times.  Erasmus  says 
of  him  in  one  of  his  letters :  "  Such  were  his 
vigilance  and  attention  in  all  matters  relating  to 
religion  and  to  the  offices  of  the  Church  that  no 
concern  which  was  foreign  to  them  seemed  ever 
to  distract  him.  He  had  sufficient  time  for  a 
scrupulous  performance  of  the  accustomed  exer- 
cises of  prayer,  for  the  almost  daily  celebration 
of  the  Mass,  for  twice  or  thrice  hearing  divine 
service,  for  determining  suits,  for  receiving  em- 
bassies, for  consultation  with  the  king  when 
matters  of  moment  required  his  presence,  for 
the  vistation  of  churches  when  regulation  was 
needed,  for  the  welcome  of  frequently  two  hund- 
dred  guests,  and  lastly  for  a  literary  leisure." 

As  the  close  friend  of  such  men,  it  is  evident 
that  Linacre  must  have  accomplished  much  good 
as  a  clergyman;  and  it  seems  not  unlikely  that 
his   frequent  changes  of  rectorship  were  rather 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest      105 

due  to  the  fact  that  the  Primate  wished  to  make 
use  of  his  influence  in  various  parts  of  his  dio- 
cese for  the  benefit  of  religion  than  for  any  per- 
sonal motives  on  Linacre's  part,  who,  in  order 
to  enter  the  service  of  the  Church,  had  given  up 
so  much  more  than  he  could  expect  as  a  clergy- 
man. 

Linacre  as  a  clergyman  continued  to  deserve 
the  goodwill  and  esteem  of  all  his  former  friends, 
and  seems  to  have  made  many  new  ones.  At  the 
time  of  his  death  he  was  one  of  the  most  honored 
individuals  in  England.  All  of  his  biographers 
are  agreed  in  stating  that  he  was  the  representa- 
tive Englishman  of  his  time,  looked  up  to  by  all 
his  contemporaries,  respected  and  admired  by 
those  who  had  not  the  opportunity  of  his  inti- 
mate acquaintance,  and  heartily  loved  by  friends, 
who  were  themselves  some  of  the  best  men  of 
the  time. 

The  concluding  paragraph  of  the  appreciation 
of  Linacre's  character  in  Lives  of  British 
Physicians x  is  as  follows :  "  To  sum  up  his 
character  it  was  said  of  him  that  no  Englishman 
of  his  day  had  had  such  famous  masters,  namely, 
Demetrius  and  Politian  of  Florence ;  such  noble 
patrons,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Henry  VII  and 
Henry  VIII ;  such  high-born  scholars,  the  Prince 
Arthur  and  Princess  Mary  of  England;  or  such 
learned  friends,  for  amongst  the  latter  were  to 
be  enumerated  Erasmus,  Melanchthon,  Latimer, 

1  London  :    John  Murray,   1830. 


106        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN   IN    SCIENCE 

Tonstal,  and  Sir  Thomas  More."  His  biog- 
rapher might  have  added  the  names  of  others  of 
the  ore-Reformation  period,  men  of  culture  and 
character  whose  merits  only  the  historical  re- 
searches of  recent  years  have  brought  out — Prior 
Selling,  Dean  Colet  (though  his  friendship  was 
unfortunately  interrupted),  Archbishop  Warham, 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  Grocyn,  and  further  scholars 
and  churchmen. 

Dr.  J.  F.  Payne,  in  summing  up  the  opinion 
of  Linacre  held  by  his  contemporaries,  in  the 
"Dictionary  of  National  Biography"  (British), 
pays  a  high  tribute  to  the  man.  "  Linacre's  per- 
sonal character  was  highly  esteemed  by  his  con- 
temporaries'. He  was  evidently  capable  of  abso- 
lute devotion  to  a  great  cause,  animated  by 
genuine  public  spirit  and  a  boundless  zeal  for 
learning."  Erasmus  sketches  him  humorously  in 
the  "  Encomium  Moriae  "  (The  Praise  of  Fool- 
ishness)— with  a  play  on  the  word  Moriae  in 
reference  to  his  great  friend,  Thomas  More,  of 
whom  Erasmus  thought  so  much — showing  him 
a  tireless  student.  The  distinguished  foreign 
scholar,  however,  considered  Linacre  as  an  en- 
thusiast in  recondite  studies,  but  no  mere  pedant. 
Dr.  Payne  closes  his  appreciation  with  these 
words :  "  Linacre  had,  it  would  seem,  no  ene- 
mies." 

Caius,  the  distinguished  English  physician  and 
scholar,  himself  one  of  the  best  known  members 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  and  the 
founder  of   Caius   College,  Cambridge,  sketches 


linacre:  scholar,  physician,  priest      107 

Linacre's  character  (he  had  as  a  young  man 
known  him  personally)  in  very  sympathetic  vein. 
As  Dr.  Caius  was  one  of  the  greatest  English- 
men of  his  time  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  his  opinion  must  carry  great  weight.  It 
is  to  him  that  we  owe  the  famous  epitaph  that 
for  long  in  old  St.  Paul's,  London,  was  to  be 
read  on  Linacre's  tombstone: — 

"  Fraudes  dolosque  mire  perosus,  fidus  amicis, 
omnibus  ordinibus  juxta  carus.  A  stern  hater  of 
deceit  and  underhand  ways,  faithful  to  his 
friends,  equally  dear  to  ail  classes." 

Surely  this  is  a  worthy  tribute  to  the  great 
physician,  clergyman,  scholar,  and  philanthropist 
of  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  in  England. 


V. 


FATHER  KIRCHER,  S.J.: 

SCIENTIST,  ORIENTALIST, 

AND  COLLECTOR. 


OPORTET  autem  neque  recenti- 
ores  viros  in  his  fraudare  quae 
vel  repererunt  vel  recte  secuti  sunt; 
et  tamen  ea  quae  apud  antiquiores 
aliquos  posita  sunt  auctoribus  suis 
reddere. — Celsus  de  Medidna. 


ATHANASIUS   KIRCHER 


V. 


FATHER  KIRCHER,  S.J.:  SCIENTIST,  ORIEN- 
TALIST, AND  COLLECTOR. 

EXCEPT  in  the  minds  of  the  unconquerably 
intolerant,  the  Galileo  controversy  has  in 
recent  years  settled  down  to  occupy  something  of 
its  proper  place  in  the  history  of  the  supposed 
conflict  between  religion  and  science.  In  touch- 
ing the  subject  in  the  life  of  Copernicus  we  sug- 
gested that  it  has  come  to  be  generally  recog- 
niezd,  as  M.  Bertrand,  the  perpetual  Secretary  of 
the  Paris  Academy  of  Sciences,  himself  a  dis- 
tinguished mathematician  and  historian,  declares, 
that  "  the  great  lesson  for  those  who  would  wish 
to  oppose  reason  with  violence  was  clearly  to  be 
read  in  Galileo's  story,  and  the  scandal  of  his 
condemnation  was  learned  without  any  profound 
sorrow  to  Galileo  himself ;  and  his  long  life,  con- 
sidered as  a  whole,  was  the  most  serene  and  en- 
viable in  the  history  of  science."  Somehow,  not- 
withstanding the  directness  of  this  declara- 
tion, there  is  still  left  in  the  minds  of  many 
an  impression  rather  difficult  to  eradicate  that 
there  was  definite,  persistent  opposition  to  every- 
thing associated  with  scientific  progress  among 
the  churchmen  of  the  time  of  Galileo. 

Perhaps  no  better  answer  to  this  unfortunate, 
because  absolutely  untrue,  impression  could  be 

in 


112         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 


formulated  than  is  to  be  found  in  a  sketch  of  the 
career  of  Father  Athanasius  Kircher,  the  distin- 
guished Jesuit  who  for  so  many  years  occupied 
himself  with  nearly  every  branch  of  science  in 
Rome,  under  the  fostering  care  of  the  Church. 
He  had  been  Professor  of  Physics,  Mathematics, 
and  Oriental  Languages  at  Wiirzburg,  but  was 
driven  from  there  by  the  disturbances  incident  to 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  in  163 1.  He  continued 
his  scientific  investigation  at  Avignon.  From 
here,  within  two  years  after  Galileo's  trial  in 
1635,  he  was,  through  the  influence  of  Cardinal 
Barberini,  summoned  to  Rome,  where  he  devoted 
himself  to  mathematics  at  first,  and  then  to  every 
branch  of  science,  as  well  as  the  Oriental  lan- 
guages, not  only  with  the  approval,  but  also  with 
the  most  liberal  pecuniary  aid  from  the  ecclesias- 
tical authorities  of  the  papal  court  and  city. 

Some  idea  of  the  breadth  of  Father  Kircher's 
scientific  sympathy  and  his  genius  for  scientific 
observation  and  discovery,  which  amounted  al- 
most to  intuition,  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  to  him  we  owe  the  first  definite  statement  of 
the  germ  theory  of  disease ;  and  he  seems  to  have 
been  the  first  to  recognize  the  presence  of  what 
are  now  called  microbes.  At  the  same  time  his 
works  on  magnetism  contained  not  only  all  the 
knowledge  of  his  own  time,  but  also  some  won- 
derful suggestions  as  to  the  possibilities  of  the 
development  of  this  science.  His  studies  with 
regard  to  light  are  almost  as  epochal  as  those 
with    regard   to   magnetism.     Besides   these,   he 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  :    SCIENTIST  113 

was  the  first  to  find  any  clue  to  the  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics,  and  yet  found  time  to  write  a  geo- 
graphical work  on  Latium,  the  country  surround- 
ing Rome,  and  to  make  collections  for  his  museum 
which  rendered  it  in  its  time  the  best  scientific 
collection  in  the  world.  It  may  very  well  indeed 
be  said  that  visitors  to  Rome  with  scientific  ten- 
dencies found  as  much  that  was  suggestive  in 
Father  Kircher's  museum — the  "  Kircherianum," 
as  it  came  to  be  called — as  artists  and  sculptors 
and  architects  found  in  the  Vatican  collections  of 
the  papal  city. 

All  of  this  work  was  accomplished  within  the 
half  century  after  Galileo's  trial,  for  Father  Kir- 
cher  died  in  1680,  at  the  age  of  seventy-eight, 
having  lived,  as  so  many  of  the  great  scientists 
have  done,  a  long  life  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
persistent  activity.  Kircher,  more  than  perhaps 
any  other,  can  be  said  to  be  the  founder  of  mod- 
ern natural  science.  Before  any  one  else,  in  a 
practical  way,  he  realized  the  necessity  for  the 
collection  of  an  immense  amount  of  data,  if 
science  was  to  be  founded  on  the  broad,  firm 
foundation  of  observed  truth.  The  principle 
which  had  been  announced  by  Bacon  in  the 
"  Novum  Organon  " — "  to  take  all  that  comes 
rather  than  to  choose,  and  to  heap  up  rather  than 
to  register  " — was  never  carried  out  as  fully  as 
by  Father  Kircher.  As  Edmund  Gosse  said  in 
the  June  number  of  Harper's,  1904,  "  Bacon 
had  started  a  great  idea,  but  he  had  not  carried 
it  out.     He  is  not  the  founder,  he  is  the  prophet 


114         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

of  modern  physical  science.  To  be  in  direct 
touch  with  nature,  to  adventure  in  the  unexplored 
fields  of  knowledge,  and  to  do  this  by  carrying 
out  an  endless  course  of  slow  and  sure  experi- 
ments, this  was  the  counsel  of  the  '  Novum  Or- 
ganon.'  "  Bacon  died  in  1626,  and  scarcely  more 
than  a  decade  had  passed  before  Kircher  was 
carrying  out  the  work  thus  outlined  by  the  Eng- 
lish philosopher  in  a  way  that  was  surprisingly 
successful,  even  looked  at  from  the  standpoint  of 
our  modern  science.  Needless  to  say,  however,  it 
was  not  because  of  Bacon's  suggestion  that  he 
did  so,  for  it  is  more  than  doubtful  whether 
he  knew  of  Bacon's  writings  until  long  after 
the  lines  of  his  life-work  had  been  traced  by  his 
own  inquiring  spirit.  The  fulness  of  time  had 
come.  The  inductive  philosophy  was  in  the  air. 
Bacon's  formulae,  which  the  English  philosopher 
never  practically  applied,  and  Father  Kircher's 
assiduous  collection  of  data,  were  but  expressions 
of  the  spirit  of  the  times.  How  faithfully  the 
work  of  the  first  modern  inductive  scientist  was 
accomplished  we  shall  see. 

It  may  be  easily  imagined  that  a  certain  inter- 
est in  Father  Kircher,  apart  from  his  scientific 
attainments  and  the  desire  to  show  how  much 
and  how  successful  was  the  attention  given  to 
natural  science  by  churchmen  about  the  time  of 
the  Galileo  controversy,  might  influence  this  judg- 
ment of  the  distinguished  Jesuit's  scientific  accom- 
plishments. With  regard  to  his  discoveries  in 
medicine  especially,  and  above  all  his  announce- 


FATHER   KIRCHER,    S.J.  :    SCIENTIST  115 

ment  of  the  microbic  origin  of  contagious  disease, 
it  may  be  thought  that  this  was  a  mere  chance 
expression  and  not  at  all  the  result  of  serious 
scientific  conclusions.  Tyndall,  however,  the  dis- 
tinguished English  physicist,  would  not  be  the 
one  to  give  credit  for  scientific  discoveries,  and 
to  a  clergyman  in  a  distant  century,  unless  there 
was  definite  evidence  of  the  discovery.  It  is  not 
generally  known  that  to  the  great  English  physi- 
cist we  owe  the  almost  absolute  demonstration  of 
the  impossibility  of  spontaneous  generation,  to- 
gether with  a  series  of  studies  showing  the  exist- 
ence everywhere  in  the  atmosphere  of  minute 
forms  of  life  to  which  fermentative  changes  and 
also  the  infectious  diseases — though  at  that  time 
this  was  only  a  probability — are  to  be  attributed. 
When  Tyndall  was  reviewing,  in  the  midst  of  the 
controversy  over  spontaneous  generation,  the 
question  of  the  microbic  origin  of  disease,  he 
said :  "  Side  by  side  with  many  other  theories  has 
run  the  germ  theory  of  epidemic  disease.  The 
notion  was  expressed  by  Kircher  and  favored  by 
Linnaeus,  that  epidemic  diseases  may  be  due  to 
germs  which  enter  the  body  and  produce  dis- 
turbance by  the  development  within  the  body  of 
parasitic  forms  of  life." 

How  much  attention  Father  Kircher's  book  on 
the  pest  or  plague,  in  which  his  theory  of  the 
micro-organismal  origin  of  disease  is  put  for- 
ward, attracted  from  the  medical  profession  can 
t>e  understood  from  the  fact  that  it  was  submitted 
to  three  of  the  most  distinguished  physicians  in 


Il6         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

Rome  before  being  printed,  and  that  their  testi- 
mony to  its  value  as  a  contribution  to  medicine 
prefaced  the  first  edition.  They  are  not  sparing 
in  their  praise  of  it.  Dr.  Joseph  Benedict  Sini- 
baldus,  who  was  the  Professor  of  the  Practice  of 
Medicine  in  the  Roman  University  at  the  time, 
says  that  "  Father  Kircher's  book  not  only  con- 
tains an  excellent  resume  of  all  that  is  known 
about  the  pest  or  plague,  but  also  as  many  val- 
uable hints  and  suggestions  on  the  origin  and 
spread  of  the  disease,  which  had  never  before 
been  made."  He  considers  it  a  very  wonderful 
thing  that  a  non-medical  man  should  have  been 
able  to  place  himself  so  thoroughly  in  touch  with 
the  present  state  of  medicine  in  respect  to  this 
disease  and  then  point  out  the  conditions  of 
future  progress. 

Dr.  Paul  Zachias,  who  was  a  distinguished 
Roman  physician  of  the  time,  said  that  he  had 
long  known  Father  Kircher  as  an  eminent  writer 
on  other  subjects,  but  that  after  reading  his  book 
on  the  pest  he  must  consider  him  also  distin- 
guished in  medical  writing.  He  says :  "  While 
he  has  set  his  hand  at  other's  harvests,  he  has 
done  it  with  so  much  wisdom  and  prudence  as  to 
win  the  admiration  of  the  harvesters  already  in 
the  field."  He  adds  that  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  would  be  a  source  of  profit  for  medical 
men  to  read  this  little  book  and  that  it  will  un- 
doubtedly prove  beneficial  to  future  generations. 

Testimony  of  another  kind  to  the  value  of 
Father  Kircher's  book  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  :    SCIENTIST  117 

that  within  a  half-year  after  its  publication  in 
Latin  it  appeared  in  several  other  languages.  It 
is  too  much  the  custom  of  these  modern  times  to 
consider  that  scientific  progress  in  the  centuries 
before  our  own  and  its  immediate  predecessor 
was  likely  to  attract  little  attention  for  many 
years,  and  was  especially  slow  to  make  its  way 
into  foreign  countries.  Anything,  however,  of 
real  importance  in  science  took  but  a  very  short 
time  to  travel  from  one  country  to  another  in 
Europe  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  fact 
that  scientific  men  generally  used  Latin  as  a  com- 
mon language  made  the  spread  of  discoveries  and 
speculations  much  easier  even  than  at  the  present 
time.  Our  increased  means  of  communication 
have  really  only  served  to  allow  sensational  an- 
nouncements of  a  progress  in  science — which  is 
usually  no  progress  at  all — to  be  spread  quite  as 
effectually  in  modern  times  as  were  real  advances 
in  the  older  days. 

There  is  no  good  account  of  Father  Kircher's 
life  available  in  English,  and  it  has  seemed  only 
proper  that  the  more  important  at  least  of  the 
details  of  the  life  of  the  man  who  thus  anticipated 
the  beginnings  of  modern  bacteriology  and  of  the 
relations  of  micro-organisms  to  disease,  should 
not  be  left  in  obscurity.  His  life  history  is  all  the 
more  interesting  and  important  because  it  illus- 
trates the  interest  of  the  churchmen  of  the  time, 
and  especially  of  the  Roman  ecclesiastical  author- 
ities, in  all  forms  of  science ;  for  Father  Kircher 
is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  greatest  scholars  of  his- 


Il8         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

tory  and  one  of  the  scientific  geniuses  in  whose 
works  can  be  found,  as  the  result  of  some  won- 
derful principles  of  intuition  incomprehensible  to 
the  slower  intellectual  operations  of  ordinary 
men,  anticipations  of  many  of  the  discoveries  of 
the  after-time.  There  is  scarcely  a  modern 
science  he  did  not  touch  upon,  and  nothing  that 
he  touched  did  he  fail  to  illuminate.  His  mag- 
nificent collections  in  the  museum  of  the  Roman 
College  demonstrate  very  well  his  extremely  wide 
interests  in  all  scientific  matters. 

The  history  of  Father  Kircher's  career  fur- 
nishes perhaps  the  best  possible  refutation  of  the 
oft-repeated  slander  that  Jesuit  education  was 
narrow  and  was  so  founded  upon  and  rooted  in 
authority  that  original  research  and  investigation, 
in  scientific  matters  particularly,  were  impossible, 
and  that  it  utterly  failed  to  encourage  new  dis- 
coveries of  any  kind.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Kir- 
cher  was  not  only  not  hampered  in  his  work  by 
his  superiors  or  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities, 
but  the  respect  in  which  he  was  held  at  Rome 
enabled  him  to  use  the  influence  of  the  Church 
and  of  great  churchmen  all  over  the  world,  with 
the  best  possible  effect,  for  the  assembling  at  the 
Roman  College  of  objects  of  the  most  various 
kinds,  illustrating  especially  the  modern  sciences 
of  archeology,  ethnology,  and  paleontology,  be- 
sides Egyptian  and  Assyrian  history. 

Athanasius  Kircher  was  born  2  May,  1602,  at 
Geisa,  near  Fulda,  in  South  Germany.  He  was 
educated  at  the  Jesuit  College  of  Fulda,  and  at 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  I    SCIENTIST  119 

the  early  age  of  sixteen,  having  completed  his 
college  course,  entered  the  Jesuit  novitiate  at 
Mainz.  After  his  novitiate  he  continued  his  phil- 
osophical and  classical  studies  at  Paderborn  and 
completed  his  years  of  scholastic  teaching  in  vari- 
ous cities  of  South  Germany — Munster,  Cologne, 
and  Coblenz — finally  finishing  his  education  by 
theological  studies  at  Cologne  and  Mainz. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  third  decade  of  the 
seventeenth  century  he  became  Professor  of  Phil- 
osophy and  Mathematics  at  Wiirzburg.  Here  his 
interest  in  Oriental  languages  began,  and  he 
established  a  special  course  in  this  subject  at  the 
University  of  Wiirzburg.  During  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  however,  the  invasion  of  Germany 
very  seriously  disturbed  university  work,  and  fin- 
ally in  1 63 1  Father  Kircher  was  sent  by  his 
superiors  to  Avignon  in  South  France,  where  he 
continued  his  teaching  some  four  years,  attract- 
ing no  little  attention  by  his  wide  interest  in 
many  sciences  and  by  various  scientific  works  that 
showed  him  to  be  a  man  of  very  broad  genius. 

In  1635,  through  the  influence  of  Cardinal  Bar- 
berini,  he  was  summoned  to  Rome,  where  he  be- 
came Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Oriental 
Languages  in  the  famous  Roman  College  of  the 
Jesuits,  which  was  considered  at  that  time  one  of 
the  greatest  educational  institutions  in  the  world. 
His  interest  in  science,  however,  was  not  lessened 
by  teaching  duties  that  would  apparently  have 
demanded  all  his  time ;  and,  as  we  shall  see,  he 
continued  to  issue  books   on   the   most   diverse 


120         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

scientific  subjects,  most  of  them  illustrated  by 
absolutely  new  experimental  observations  and  all 
of  them  attracting  widespread  attention. 

Father  Kircher  began  his  career  as  a  writer 
on  science  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-seven,  when 
he  issued  his  first  work  on  magnetism.  The  title 
of  this  volume,  "Ars  Magnesia  turn  Theorema- 
tice  turn  Problematice  Proposita,"  shows  that  the 
subject  was  not  treated  entirely  from  a  specula- 
tive standpoint.  Indeed,  in  the  preface  he  states 
that  he  hopes  that  the  principal  value  of  the  book 
will  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  knowledge  of 
magnetism  is  presented  by  a  new  method,  with 
special  demonstrations,  and  that  the  conclusions 
are  confirmed  by  various  practical  uses  and  long- 
continued  experience  with  magnets  of  various 
kinds. 

Although  it  may  be  a  source  of  great  surprise, 
Father  Kircher's  genius  was  essentially  experi- 
mental. He  has  been  spoken  of  not  infrequently 
as  a  man  who  collected  the  scientific  information 
of  his  time  in  such  a  way  as  to  display,  as 
says  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  "  a  wide  and 
varied  learning,  but  that  he  was  a  man  singularly 
devoid  of  judgment  and  critical  discernment." 
He  was  in  some  respects  the  direct  opposite  of  the 
opinion  thus  expressed,  since  his  learning  was 
always  of  a  practical  character,  and  there  are  very 
few  subjects  in  this  writing  which  he  has  not  him- 
self illustrated  by  means  of  new  and  ingenious 
experiments. 

Perhaps  the  best  possible  proof  of  this  is  to  be 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  :    SCIENTIST  121 

found  in  the  fact  that  his  second  scientific  work 
was  on  the  construction  of  sun-dials,  and  that  one 
of  the  discoveries  he  himself  considered  most  val- 
uable was  the  invention  of  a  calculating  machine, 
as  well  as  of  a  complicated  arrangement  for  illus- 
trating the  positions  of  the  stars  in  the  heavens. 
He  constructed,  moreover,  a  large  burning-glass 
in  order  to  demonstrate  the  possibility  of  the  story 
told  of  Archimedes,  that  he  had  succeeded  in 
burning  the  enemy's  ships  in  the  harbor  at  Syra- 
cuse by  means  of  a  large  lens. 

But  Father  Kircher's  surest  claim  to  being  a 
practical  genius  is  to  be  found  in  his  invention  of 
the  magic  lantern.  It  was  another  Jesuit,  Aqui- 
lonius,  in  his  work  on  optics,  issued  in  1613,  who 
had  first  sought  to  explain  how  the  two  pictures 
presented  to  the  two  eyes  are  fused  into  one,  and 
it  was  in  a  practical  demonstration  of  this  by 
means  of  lenses  that  Kircher  hit  upon  the  inven- 
tion of  the  projecting  stereoscope. 

After  his  call  to  Rome  our  subject  continued 
his  work  on  magnetism,  and  in  1641  issued  a  fur- 
ther treatise  on  the  subject  called  "  Magnes  "  or 
"  De  Arte  Magnetica."  While  he  continued  to 
teach  Oriental  languages  and  issued  in  1644  a 
book  with  the  title  "  Lingua  ^Egyptiaca  Resti- 
tuta,"  he  also  continued  to  apply  himself  especially 
to  the  development  of  physical  science.  Accord- 
ingly in  1645  there  appeared  his  volume  "Ars 
Magna  Lucis  et  Umbrae."  This  was  a  treatise 
on  light,  illustrated,  as  was  his  treatise  on  mag- 
netism, by  many  original  experiments  and  demon- 
strations. 


122         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

During  the  five  years  until  1650  the  depart- 
ment of  acoustics  came  under  his  consideration, 
so  that  in  that  year  we  have  from  his  pen  a  treat- 
ise called  "  Musurgia  Universalis,"  with  the  sub- 
title, "  The  Art  of  Harmony  and  Discord ;  a 
treatise  on  the  whole  doctrine  of  sound  with  the 
philosophy  of  music  treated  from  the  standpoint 
of  practical  as  well  as  theoretic  science."  Dur- 
ing the  next  five  years  astronomy  was  his  special 
hobby,  and  the  result  was  in  1656  a  treatise  on 
astronomy  called  "  Iter  Celeste."  This  contained 
a  description  of  the  earth  and  the  heavens  and 
discussed  the  nature  of  the  fixed  and  moving 
stars,  with  various  considerations  as  to  the  com- 
position and  structure  of  these  bodies.  A  second 
volume  on  this  subject  appeared  in  1660. 

The  variety  of  Father  Kircher's  interests  in 
science  was  not  yet  exhausted,  however.  Five 
years  after  the  completion  of  his  two  volumes  on 
astronomy  there  came  one  on  "  Mundus  Subter- 
raneus."  This  treated  of  the  modern  subjects  of 
geology,  metallurgy,  and  mineralogy,  as  well  as 
the  chemistry  of  minerals.  It  also  contained  a 
treatise  on  animals  that  live  under  the  ground, 
and  on  insects.  This  was  considered  one  of  the 
author's  greatest  books,  and  the  whole  of  it 
was  translated  into  French,  whilst  abstracts  from 
it,  especially  the  chapters  on  poisons,  appeared  in 
most  of  the  other  languages  of  Europe.  Part  of 
it  was  translated  even  into  English,  though  seven- 
teenth-century Englishmen  were  loath  to  draw 
their  inspiration  from  Jesuit  writers. 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  :    SCIENTIST  1 23 

Jesuits  were,  however,  at  this  time  generally 
acknowledged  on  the  Continent  to  be  leaders  in 
every  department  of  thought,  sympathetic  coad- 
jutors in  every  step  in  scientific  progress.  Strange 
as  it  may  appear  to  those  who  will  not  understand 
the  Jesuit  spirit  of  love  for  learning,  two  of  the 
most  distinguished  scientists  whose  names  are 
immortal  in  the  history  of  physical  sciences  in  dif- 
fent  departments  during  this  century,  Kepler  and 
Harvey,  were  on  intimate  terms  of  friendship 
with  the  Jesuits  of  Germany.  Harvey,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  visit  to  the  Continent,  stopped  for 
a  prolonged  visit  with  the  Jesuits  at  Cologne,  so 
that  some  of  his  English  friends  joked  him  about 
the  possibility  of  his  making  converts  of  the 
Jesuits.  These  witticisms,  however,  did  not  seem 
to  distract  Harvey  very  much,  for  he  returned  on 
a  subsequent  occasion  to  spend  some  further  days 
with  his  Jesuit  scientific  friends  along  the  Rhine. 

In  the  meantime  Father  Kircher  was  issuing 
notable  books  on  his  always  favorite  subject  of 
the  Oriental  languages.  In  1650  there  appeared 
"  Obeliscus  Pamphilius,"  containing  an  explana- 
tion of  the  hieroglyphics  to  be  found  on  the  obe- 
lisk which  by  the  order  of  Innocent  X,  a  member 
of  the  Pamfili  family,  was  placed  in  the  Piazza 
Navona  by  Bernini.  This  is  no  mere  pamphlet, 
as  might  be  thought,  but  a  book  of  560  pages. 
In  1652  there  appeared  "  CEdipus  iEgyptiacus," 
that  is.  the  revealer  of  the  sphinx-like  riddle  of 
the  Egyptian  ancient  languages.  In  1653  a  sec- 
ond volume  of  this  appeared,  and  in  1655  a  third 


124         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

volume.  It  was  considered  so  important  that  it 
was  translated  into  Russian  and  other  Slav  lan- 
guages, besides  several  other  European  lan- 
guages. His  book,  "  Lingua  ^Egyptiaca  Resti- 
tuta,"  which  appeared  in  1644,  when  Kircher  was 
forty-two  years  of  age,  is  considered  to  be  of 
value  yet  in  the  study  of  Oriental  languages,  and 
was  dedicated  to  the  patron,  Emperor  Ferdinand 
III,  whose  liberality  made  its  publication  possible. 

It  is  often  a  subject  for  conjecture  just  how 
science  was  studied  and  taught  in  centuries  be- 
fore the  nineteenth,  and  just  what  text-books 
were  employed.  A  little  familiarity  with  Father 
Kircher's  publications,  however,  will  show  that 
there  was  plenty  of  very  suitable  material  for 
text-books  to  be  found  in  his  works.  Under  his 
own  direction,  what  at  the  present  time  would  be 
called  a  text-book  of  physics,  but  which  at  that 
time  was  called  "  Physiologia  Experimentalis," 
was  issued,  containing  all  the  experimental  and 
demonstrative  parts  of  his  various  books  on  chem- 
istry, physics,  music,  magnetism,  and  mechanics, 
as  well  as  acoustics  and  optics.  This  formed  the 
groundwork  of  most  text-books  of  science  for  a 
full  century  afterwards.  Indeed,  until  the  be- 
ginning of  the  distinctly  modern  science  of  chem- 
istry with  the  discoveries  of  Priestley  and  Lavoi- 
sier, there  was  to  be  little  added  of  serious  im- 
port in  science. 

Perhaps  the  most  commendable  feature  of 
Father  Kircher's  books  is  the  fact  that  he  him- 
self seems  never  to  have  considered  that  he  had 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  ■    SCIENTIST  125 

exhausted  a  subject.  The  first  work  he  published 
was  on  magnetism.  Some  twelve  years  later  he 
returned  to  the  subject,  and  wrote  a  more  exten- 
sive work,  containing  many  improvements  over 
the  first  volume.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  his 
studies  in  sound.  In  1650,  when  not  quite  fifty 
years  of  age,  he  issued  his  "  Musurgia  Univer- 
salis," a  sub-title  of  which  stated  that  it  contains 
the  whole  doctrine  of  sound  and  the  practical  and 
theoretical  philosophy  of  music.  A  little  over 
twenty  years  later,  however,  he  published  the 
"Phonurgia  Nova,"  the  sub-title  of  which  showed 
that  it  was  mainly  concerned  with  the  experi- 
mental demonstration  of  various  truths  in  acous- 
tics and  with  the  development  of  the  doctrine  he 
had  originally  stated  in  the  "  Musurgia." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  his  contemporaries  spoke 
of  him  as  the  Doctor  centum  artium — the  teacher 
of  a  hundred  arts — for  there  was  practically  no 
branch  of  scientific  knowledge  in  his  time  in 
which  he  was  not  expert.  Scientific  visitors  to 
Rome  always  considered  it  one  of  the  privileges 
of  their  stay  in  the  papal  city  to  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  meet  Father  Kircher,  and  it  was  thought 
a  very  great  honor  to  be  shown  through  his 
museum  by  himself. 

Of  course,  it  is  difficult  for  present-day  scien- 
tists to  imagine  a  man  exhausting  the  whole 
round  of  science  in  this  way.  Many  who  have 
read  but  little  more  than  the  titles  of  Father  Kir- 
cher's  many  books  are  accordingly  prone  to  speak 
of  him  as  a  mine  of  information,  but  without  any 


V 


126        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

proper  critical  judgment.  He  has  succeeded,  ac- 
cording to  them,  in  heaping  together  an  immense 
amount  of  information,  but  it  is  of  the  most  dis- 
parate value.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  took 
account  of  many  things  in  science  that  are  mani- 
festly absurd.  Astrology,  for  instance,  had  not, 
in  his  time,  gone  out  of  fashion  entirely,  and  he 
refers  many  events  in  men's  lives  to  the  influence 
of  the  stars.  He  even  made  rules  for  astrological 
predictions,  and  his  astronomical  machine  for 
exhibiting  the  motions  of  the  stars  was  also  meant 
to  be  helpful  in  the  construction  of  astrological 
tables.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  in 
his  time  the  best  astronomers,  like  Tycho  Brahe 
and  even  Kepler,  had  not  entirely  given  up  the 
idea  of  the  influence  of  the  stars  over  man's 
destiny. 

As  regards  other  sciences,  there  are  details  of 
information  that  may  appear  quite  as  supersti- 
tious as  the  belief  in  astrology.  Kircher,  for  in- 
stance, accepted  the  idea  of  the  possibility  of  the 
transmutation  of  metals.  It  is  to  be  said,  though, 
that  all  mankind  were  convinced  of  this  possibil- 
ity, and  indeed  not  entirely  without  reason.  All 
during  the  nineteenth  century  scientists  believed 
very  firmly  in  the  absolute  independence  of  chem- 
ical elements  and  their  utter  non-interchangeabil- 
ity.  As  the  result  of  recent  discoveries,  however, 
in  which  one  element  has  apparently  been  ob- 
served giving  rise  to  another,  much  of  this  doc- 
trine has  come  to  be  considered  as  improbable, 
and  now  the  idea  of  possible  transmutation  of 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  I    SCIENTIST  12J 


metals  and  other  chemical  elements  into  one  an- 
other appears  not  so  absurd  as  it  was  half  a  cen- 
tury ago. 

Any  one  who  will  take  up  a  text-book  of 
science  of  a  century  ago  will  find  in  it  many 
glaring  absurdities.  It  will  seem  almost  impos- 
sible that  a  scientific  thinker,  in  his  right  senses, 
could  have  accepted  some  of  the  propositions  that 
are  calmly  set  down  as  absolute  truths.  Every 
generation  has  made  itself  ridiculous  by  knowing 
many  things  "  that  are  not  so,"  and  even  ours  is 
no  exception.  Father  Kircher  was  not  outside 
this  rule,  though  he  was  ahead  of  his  generation 
in  the  critical  faculty  that  enabled  him  to  elim- 
inate many  falsities  and  to  illuminate  half-truths 
in  the  science  of  his  day. 

Undoubtedly  the  most  interesting  of  Father 
Kircher's  scientific  books  is  his  work  On  the  Pest, 
with  some  considerations  on  its  origin,  mode  of 
distribution,  and  treatment,  which  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  gathered  to- 
gether all  the  medical  theories  of  the  times  as  to 
the  causation  of  contagious  disease,  discussed 
them  with  critical  judgment  and  reached  conclu- 
sions which  anticipate  much  of  what  is  most  mod- 
ern in  our  present-day  medicine.  It  is  this  work 
of  Father  Kircher's  that  is  now  most  often  re- 
ferred to,  and  very  deservedly  so,  because  it  is 
one  of  the  classics  which  represents  a  landmark 
in  knowledge  for  all  time.  It  merits  a  place 
beside  such  books  as  Harvey  on  the  Circulation 
of  Blood,   or  even  Vesalius   on   Human  Anat- 


128        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

omy.  As  we  have  seen,  it  is  now  quoted  from 
by  our  best  recent  authorities  who  attempt  seri- 
ously to  trace  the  history  of  the  microbic  theory 
of  disease,  and  its  conclusions  are  the  result  of 
logical  processes  and  not  the  mere  chance  light- 
ing upon  truth  of  a  mind  that  had  the  theories  of 
the  time  before  it.  In  it  Father  Kircher's  genius 
is  best  exhibited.  It  has  the  faults  of  his  too 
ready  credibility;  and  his  desire  to  discuss  all 
possible  phases  of  the  question,  even  those  which 
are  now  manifestly  absurd,  has  led  him  into  what 
prove  to  be  useless  digressions.  But  on  the  whole 
it  represents  very  well  the  first  great  example  of 
the  application  of  the  principle  of  inductive 
science  to  modern  medicine.  All  the  known  facts 
and  observations  are  collected  and  discussed,  and 
then  the  conclusions  are  suggested. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  trace  the  development 
of  Father  Kircher's  ideas  with  regard  to  the 
origin,  causation,  and  communication  of  disease, 
because  in  many  points  he  so  clearly  anticipates 
medical  knowledge  that  has  only  come  to  be  defi- 
nitely accepted  in  very  recent  times.  It  has  often 
been  pointed  out  that  Sir  Robert  Boyle  declared 
that  the  processes  of  fermentation  and  those 
which  brought  about  infectious  disease,  were 
probably  of  similar  nature,  and  that  the  scientist 
who  solved  the  problem  of  the  cause  of  fermenta- 
tion would  throw  great  light  on  the  origin  of 
these  diseases.  This  prophetic  remark  was  abso- 
lutely verified  when  Pasteur,  a  chemist  who  had 
solved  the  problem  of  fermentation,  also  solved 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  :    SCIENTIST  1 29 

the  weightier  questions  connected  with  human 
diseases.  Before  even  Boyle,  however,  Father 
Kircher  had  expressed  his  opinion  that  disease 
processes  were  similar  to  those  of  putrefaction. 
He  considered  that  putrefaction  was  due  to  the 
presence  of  certain  corpuscula,  as  he  called  them, 
and  these  he  said  were  also  probably  active  in  the 
causation  of  infectious  disease. 

He  was  not  sure  whether  or  not  these  corpus- 
cula were  living,  in  the  sense  that  they,  could 
multiply  of  themselves.  He  considered,  however, 
that  this  was  very  probable.  As  to  their  distri- 
bution, he  is  especially  happy  in  his  anticipations 
of  modern  medical  progress.  While  he  consid- 
ered it  very  possible  that  they  were  carried 
through  the  air,  he  gives  it  as  his  deliberate 
opinion  that  living  things  were  the  most  frequent 
agents  for  the  distribution  of  the  corpuscles  of 
disease.  He  is  sure  that  they  are  carried  by  flies, 
for  instance,  and  that  they  may  be  inoculated  by 
the  stings  of  such  insects  as  fleas  or  mosquitoes. 
He  even  gives  some  examples  that  he  knew  of  in 
which  this  was  demonstrated.  Still  more  strik- 
ing is  his  insistence  on  the  fact  that  such  a  con- 
tagious disease  as  pest  may  be  carried  by  cats  and 
dogs  and  other  domestic  animals.  The  cat  seemed 
to  him  to  be  associated  with  special  danger  in  this 
matter,  and  he  gives  an  example  of  a  nunnery 
which  had  carefully  protected  itself  against  pos- 
sible infection,  but  had  allowed  a  cat  to  come  in, 
with  the  result  that  some  cases  of  the  disease  de- 
veloped. 


I30         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

An  interesting  bit  of  discussion  is  to  be  found 
in  the  chapter  in  which  Father  Kircher  takes  up 
the  consideration  of  the  problem  whether  infec- 
tious disease  can  ever  be  produced  by  the  imag- 
ination. He  is  speaking  particularly  of  the  pest, 
but  there  is  more  than  a  suspicion  that  under  the 
name  pest  came  at  times  of  epidemics  many  of 
our  modern  contagious  diseases.  Father  Kircher 
says  that  there  is  no  doubt  that  worry  plays  an 
important  role  in  predisposing  persons  to  take  the 
disease.  He  does  not  consider,  however,  that  it 
can  originate  of  itself,  or  be  engendered  in  the 
person  without  contact  with  some  previous  case 
of  pest.  With  regard  to  the  question  of  predis- 
position he  is  very  modern.  He  points  out  that 
many  persons  do  not  take  the  disease,  because 
evidently  of  some  protective  quality  which  they 
possess.  He  is  sure,  too,  that  the  best  possible 
protection  comes  from  keeping  in  good,  general 
health. 

A  curious  suggestion  is  that  with  regard  to  the 
grave-diggers  and  undertakers.  It  has  often 
been  noted  in  Italy,  so  Father  Kircher  asserts, 
that  these  individuals  as  a  rule  did  not  succumb  to 
the  disease,  notwithstanding  their  extreme  expo- 
sure, when  the  majority  of  the  population  were 
suffering  from  it.  Toward  the  end  of  the  epi- 
demic, however,  at  the  time  when  the  towns- 
people were  beginning  to  rejoice  over  its  prac- 
tical disappearance,  it  was  not  unusual  to  have 
these  caretakers  of  the  dead  brought  down  with 
the  disease — often,  too,  in  fatal  form.      Father 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  I    SCIENTIST  I3I 

Kircher  considers  that  only  strong  and  healthy 
individuals  would  take  up  such  an  occupation. 
That  the  satisfaction  of  accomplishing  a  large 
amount  of  work  and  making  money  kept  them  in 
good  health.  Later  on,  however,  as  the  result  of 
overwork  during  the  time  of  the  epidemic  and 
also  of  discouragement  because  they  saw  the  end 
of  prosperous  times  for  them,  they  became  predis- 
posed to  the  disease  and  then  fell  victims. 

With  regard  to  the  prevention  of  the  pest  in 
individual  cases,  Father  Kircher  has  some  very 
sensible  remarks.  He  says  that  physicians  as  a 
rule  depend  on  certain  medicinal  protectives  or 
on  amulets  which  they  carry.  The  amulets  he 
considers  to  be  merely  superstitious.  The  sweet- 
smelling  substances  that  are  sometimes  employed 
are  probably  without  any  preventive  action.  Cer- 
tain physicians  employed  a  prophylactic  remedy 
made  up  of  very  many  substances.  This  is  what 
in  modern  days  we  would  be  apt  to  call  a  "  gun- 
shot prescription."  It  contained  so  many  ingre- 
dients that  it  was  hoped  that  some  one  of  them 
would  hit  the  right  spot  and  prove  effective. 
Father  Kircher  has  another  name  for  it.  We  do 
not  know  whether  it  is  original  with  him,  but  in 
any  case  it  is  worth  while  remembering.  He 
calls  it  a  "  calendar  prescription,"  because  when 
written  it  resembled  a  list  of  the  days  of  the 
month. 

His  opinion  of  this  "  calendar  prescription  "  is 
not  very  high.  It  seems  to  him  that  if  one  ingre- 
dient  did  good,   most   of   the   others   would  be 


132         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

almost  as  sure  to  do  harm.  The  main  factor  in 
prophylaxis  to  his  mind  was  to  keep  in  normal 
health,  and  this  seemed  not  quite  compatible  with 
frequent  recourse  to  a  prescription  containing  so 
many  drugs  that  were  almost  sure  to  have  no 
good  effect  and  might  have  an  ill  effect.  It  is  all 
the  more  interesting  to  find  these  common-sense 
views  because  ordinarily  Father  Kircher  is  set 
down  as  one  who  accepted  most  of  the  traditions 
of  his  time  without  inquiring  very  deeply  into 
their  origin  or  truth,  simply  reporting  them  out 
of  the  fulness  of  his  rather  pedantic  information. 
In  most  cases  it  will  be  found,  however,  that,  like 
Herodotus,  reporting  the  curious  things  that  had 
been  told  him  in  his  travels,  he  is  very  careful  to 
state  what  are  his  own  opinions  and  what  he 
owes  to  others  and  gives  place  to,  though  without 
attaching  much  credence  to  them. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  his  great  con- 
temporaries, Von  Helmont  and  Paracelsus,  were 
not  free  from  many  of  the  curious  scientific  super- 
stitions of  their  time,  though  they  had,  like  him, 
in  many  respects  the  true  scientific  spirit.  Von 
Helmont,  for  instance,  was  a  firm  believer  in  the 
doctrine  of  spontaneous  generation,  and  even 
went  so  far  as  to  consider  that  it  had  its  appli- 
cation to  animals  of  rather  high  order.  For  in- 
stance, one  of  his  works  contains  a  rather  fam- 
ous prescription  to  bring  about  the  spontaneous 
generation  of  mice.  What  was  needed  was  a  jar 
of  meal  kept  in  a  dark  corner  covered  by  some 
soiled  linen.     After  three  weeks  these  elements 


FATHER    KIRCHER,    S.J.  :    SCIENTIST  1 33 

would  be  found  to  have  bred  mice.  Too  much 
must  not  be  expected,  then,  of  Kircher  in  the 
matter  of  crediting  supposedly  scientific  tradi- 
tions. 

It  may  seem  surprising  that  Father  Kircher's 
book  did  not  produce  a  greater  impression  upon 
the  medical  research  work  and  teaching  of  the 
day  and  lead  to  an  earlier  development  of  mic- 
robology.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  instru- 
ments of  precision  necessary  for  such  a  study 
were  not  then  at  hand,  and  the  gradual  loss  of 
prestige  of  the  book  is  therefore  readily  to  be 
understood.  The  explanation  of  this  delay  in  the 
development  of  science  is  very  well  put  by  Crook- 
shank,  who  is  the  professor  of  comparative  path- 
ology and  bacteriology  at  King's  College,  Lon- 
don, and  one  of  the  acknowledged  authorities  on 
these  subjects  in  the  medical  world.  Professor 
Crookshank  says,  at  the  beginning  of  the  first 
chapter  of  his  text-book  on  bacteriology,  in  which 
he  traces  the  origin  of  the  science,  that  the  first 
attempt  to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  the  con- 
tagium  vivum  dates  back  almost  to  the  discovery 
of  the  microscope  x : — 

Athanasius  Kircher  nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries 
ago  expressed  his  belief  that  there  were  definite  micro- 
organisms to  which  diseases  were  attributable.  The 
microscope    had    revealed    that    all     decomposing    sub- 


1 A  Text-Book  of  Bacteriology.  Including  the  Eti- 
ology and  Prevention  of  Infectious  Diseases.  By  Edgar 
M.   Crookshank.     Fourth  Edition.     London,   1896. 


134         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

stances  swarmed  with  countless  micro-organisms  which 
were  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  and  Kircher  sought  for 
similar  organisms  in  disease,  which  he  considered  might 
be  due  to  their  agency.  The  microscopes  which  he  de- 
scribes obviously  could  not  admit  of  the  possibility  of 
studying  or  even  detecting  the  micro-organisms  which 
are  now  known  to  be  associated  with  certain  diseases ; 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  teaching  did  not  at  the 
time  gain  much  attention.  They  were  destined,  how- 
ever, to  receive  a  great  impetus  from  the  discoveries 
which  emanated  not  long  after  from  the  father  of 
microscopy,   Leeuwenhoek. 

This  reference  to  Kircher's  work,  however, 
shows  that  more  cordial  appreciation  of  his  scien- 
tific genius  has  come  in  our  day,  and  it  seems  not 
unlikely  that  in  the  progress  *of  more  accurate 
and  detailed  knowledge  of  scientific  origins  his 
reputation  will  grow  as  it  deserves.  With  that 
doubtless  will  come  a  better  understanding  of  the 
true  attitude  of  the  scholars  of  the  time — so  many 
of  whom  were  churchmen — to  so-called  physical 
science  in  contradistinction  to  philosophy,  in 
which  of  course  they  had  always  been  profoundly 
interested.  The  work  done  by  Kircher  could 
never  have  been  accomplished  but  for  the  sym- 
pathetic interest  of  those  who  are  falsely  sup- 
posed to  have  been  bitterly  opposed  to  all  prog- 
ress in  the  natural  sciences,  but  whose  opposition 
was  really  limited  to  theoretic  phases  of  scien- 
tific inquiry  that  threatened,  as  has  scientific 
theory  so  often  since,  to  prove  directly  contra- 
dictory to  revealed  truth. 


VI. 

BISHOP   STENSEN:   ANATOMIST 
AND  FATHER  OF  GEOLOGY. 


God  makes  sages  and  saints  that 
they  may  be  fountain-heads  of 
wisdom  and  virtue  for  all  who  yearn 
and  aspire:  and  whoever  has  supe- 
rior knowledge  or  ability  is  thereby 
committed  to  more  effectual  and  un- 
selfish service  of  his  fellow-men.  If 
the  love  of  fame  be  but  an  infirmity 
of  noble  souls,  the  craving  of  profes- 
sional reputation  is  but  conceit  and 
vanity.  To  be  of  help,  and  to  be  of 
help  not  merely  to  animals,  but  to 
immortal,  pure,  loving  spirits — this 
is  the  noblest  earthly  fate. — Bishop 
Spalding:  The  Physician  s  Calling 
and  Education. 


NICOLAUS   STENONIS 


VI. 


BISHOP    STENSEN,    ANATOMIST    AND   FATHER 
OF  GEOLOGY. 

IN  the  sketch  of  the  life  of  Father  Athanasius 
Kircher,  the  distinguished  Jesuit  scientist, 
mathematician,  and  Orientalist,  I  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that,  at  the  very  time  when  Galileo 
was  tried  and  condemned  at  Rome,  because  of 
his  abuse  of  Scripture  for  the  demonstration  of 
scientific  thesis,  a  condemnation  which  has  been 
often  since  proclaimed  to  be  due  to  the  Church's 
intolerant  opposition  to  science,  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  at  Rome  invited  Father  Kircher,  who 
was  at  that  time  teaching  mathematics  in  Ger- 
many, to  come  to  Rome,  and  during  the  next  half- 
century  encouraged  him  in  every  way  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  all  the  physical  sciences  of  the  times. 
It  was  to  popes  and  cardinals,  as  well  as  to  in- 
fluential members  of  his  own  order  of  the  Jesuits, 
that  Father  Kircher  owed  his  opportunities  for 
the  foundation  of  a  complete  and  magnificent 
museum,  illustrating  many  phases  of  natural 
science — -the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  and 
which  yet  continues  to  be  one  of  the  noteworthy 
collections. 

During  the  decade  in  which  the  condemnation 
of  Galileo  and  the  invitation  of  Father  Kircher 
to  Rome  took  place,  there  was  born,  at  Copen- 

137 


I38         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

hagen,  a  man  whose  career  of  distinction  in 
science  was  to  prove  even  more  effectively  than 
that  of  Kircher,  if  possible,  that  there  was  no 
opposition  in  ecclesiastical  circles  in  Italy,  dur- 
ing this  century,  to  the  development  of  natural 
science  even  in  departments  in  respect  to  which 
the  Church  has,  over  and  over  again,  been  said  to 
be  specially  intolerant.  This  scientist  was  Nich- 
olas Stensen,  the  discoverer  of  the  duct  of  the 
parotid  gland,  which  conducts  saliva  into  the 
mouth,  and  the  founder,  in  the  truest  sense  of  the 
word,  of  the  modern  science  of  geology.  Sten- 
sen's  discovery  of  the  duct  which  has  since  borne 
his  name  was  due  to  no  mere  accident;  for  he 
was  one  of  the  really  great  anatomists  of 
all  time,  and  one  distinguished  particularly  for 
his  powers  of  original  observation  and  investiga- 
tion. To  have  the  two  distinctions,  then,  of  a 
leader  in  anatomy  and  a  founder  in  geology, 
stamps  him  as  one  of  the  supreme  scientific 
geniuses  of  all  time,  a  man  not  only  of  a  fruit- 
fully inquiring  disposition  of  mind,  but  also  one 
who  possessed  a  very  definite  realization  of  how 
important  for  the  cause  of  scientific  truth  is  the 
necessity  of  testing  all  ideas  with  regard  to 
things  physical,  by  actual  observations  of  nature 
and  by  drawing  conclusions  not  wider  than  the 
observed  facts. 

Notwithstanding  this  characteristically  scientific 
temper  of  mind,  which,  according  to  most  mod- 
ern ideas,  at  least,  would  seem  to  be  sure  to  lead 
him  away  from  religious  truth,   Stensen  at  the 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  139 

very  height  of  his  career  as  a  scientist,  while 
studying  anatomy  and  geology  in  Italy,  became 
a  convert  from  Lutheranism,  in  which  he  had 
been  born,  to  Catholicity,  and  thereafter  made  it 
one  of  the  prime  objects  of  his  life  to  bring  as 
many  others  as  possible  of  the  separated  breth- 
ren into  the  fold  of  the  Church.  When  he  ac- 
cepted the  professorship  of  anatomy  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Copenhagen,  it  was  with  the  definite 
idea  that  he  might  be  able  to  use  the  influence  of 
his  position  to  make  people  realize  how  much  of 
religious  truth  there  was  in  the  old  Church  from 
which  they  had  been  separated  in  the  preceding 
century.  After  a  time,  however,  his  zeal  led  him 
to  resign  his  position,  and  ask  to  be  made  a 
priest,  in  order  that  he  might  be  able  more  effec- 
tively to  fulfil  what  he  now  considered  the  main 
purpose  of  his  life,  the  winning  of  souls  to  the 
Church.  As,  since  his  conversion,  he  had  given 
every  evidence  of  the  most  sincere  piety  and 
humble  simplicity,  his  desires  were  granted.  His 
book  on  geology,  however,  was  partly  written 
during  the  very  time  when  he  was  preparing  for 
sacred  orders,  and  was  warmly  welcomed  by  all 
his  Catholic  friends.  After  spending  some  time 
as  a  missionary,  and  attracting  a  great  deal  of 
attention  by  his  devout  life  and  by  the  many 
friends  and  converts  he  succeeded  in  making,  the 
recently  converted  Duke  of  Hanover  asked  that 
the  zealous  Danish  convert  should  be  made  bishop 
of  his  capital  city.  This  request  was  imme- 
diately granted,  and  Stensen  spent  several  years 


I40         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

in  the  hardest  missionary  labor  in  his  new  field. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  his  labors  proved  too  much 
for  his  rather  delicate  constitution,  and  he  died  at 
the  comparatively  early  age  of  forty-eight.  The 
visitor  to  the  University  of  Copenhagen  marvels 
to  find  among  the  portraits  of  her  professors  of 
anatomy  one  in  the  robes  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
bishop.  This  is  Stensen.  In  1881,  when  the 
International  Geographical  Congress  met  at 
Bologna,  it  adjourned  at  the  end  of  the  session  to 
Florence  to  unveil  a  bust  of  Stensen,  over  his 
tomb  there.  Here  evidently  is  a  man  whose  life 
is  well  worth  studying,  because  of  all  that  it 
means  for  the  history  of  his  time. 

Nicholas  Stensen — or,  as  he  is  often  called, 
Steno,  because  this  is  the  Latin  form  of  his  name, 
and  Latin  was  practically  exclusively  used,  dur- 
ing his  age,  in  scientific  circles  all  over  Europe — 
was  born  20  January,  1638,  in  Copenhagen.  His 
father  died  while  he  was  comparatively  young, 
and  his  mother  married  again,  both  her  husbands 
being  goldsmiths  in  high  repute  for  their  skill, 
and  both  of  them  in  rather  well-to-do  circum- 
stances. His  early  education  was  obtained  at 
Copenhagen,  and  the  results  displayed  in  his 
attainments  show  how  well  it  must  have  been 
conducted.  Later  in  life  he  spoke  and  wrote 
Latin  very  fluently  and  had,  besides,  a  very  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  Greek  and  of  Hebrew.  Of 
the  modern  languages,  German,  French,  Italian, 
and  Low  Dutch  he  knew  very  well,  mainly  from 
residence  in  the  various  countries  in  which  they 


BISHOP    STENSEN  :    ANATOMIST  I4I 


are  spoken.  A  more  unusual  attainment  at  that 
time,  and  one  showing  the  ardor  of  his  thirst  for 
knowledge,  was  an  acquaintance  with  English. 
In  early  life  he  was  especially  fond  of  mathe- 
matics and,  indeed,  it  was  almost  by  accident  that 
this  did  not  become  his  chosen  field  of  educa- 
tional development. 

At  eighteen  he  became  a  student  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Copenhagen,  and  after  some  prelimi- 
nary studies  in  philosophy  and  philology  devoted 
himself  mainly  to  medicine.  At  this  time  the 
Danish  University  was  especially  distinguished 
for  its  work  in  anatomy.  The  famous  family  of 
Bartholini,  who  had  for  several  generations  been 
teaching  there,  had  proved  a  copious  source  of 
inspiration  for  the  students  in  their  department, 
and  as  a  consequence  original  investigation  of  a 
high  order,  with  enthusiasm  for  the  development 
of  anatomical  science,  had  become  the  rule.  The 
external  situation  was  not  favorable  to  learning, 
for  Denmark  was  engaged  in  harassing  and 
costly  wars  during  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
seventeenth  century ;  yet  the  work  accomplished 
here  was,  undoubtedly,  some  of  the  best  in 
Europe.  Young  Stensen  had  the  advantage  of 
having  Thomas  Bartholini  as  his  preceptor,  and 
soon,  because  of  his  enthusiasm  for  science,  as 
friend  and  father. 

Stensen  had  been  at  the  University  scarcely 
two  years  when  the  city  of  Copenhagen  was  be- 
sieged by  the  Swedes.  Professor  Lutz,  of  the 
University  of  St.  Louis,  who  has  recently  written 


142        CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

an  article  on  Stensen,  which  appeared  in  the 
Medical  Library  and  Historical  Journal  for  July, 
1904,  says  of  this  period: 

A  regiment  of  students  numbering  two  hundred  and 
sixty-six,  called  "  the  black  coats  "  on  account  of  their 
dark  clothes,  was  formed  for  the  defence  of  the  city; 
upon  its  roster  we  find  the  name  of  young  Steno.  Dur- 
ing the  day  they  were  at  work  mending  the  ramparts, 
and  the  nights  were  spent  in  repelling  the  attacks  of  the 
enemy.  In  the  course  of  this  long  siege,  the  city  was 
compelled  to  cope  with  a  more  formidable  enemy  than 
the  Swedes — famine  with  all  its  horrors — before  relief 
came  in  the  shape  of  provisions  and  reinforcements 
furnished  by  the  Dutch  fleet.  Throughout  these  tur- 
bulent days  the  student  soldiers  rendered  valuable 
services  to  their  country,  and  though  it  be  true  that 
"  inter  arma  silent  musae " — "  the  war  gods  do  not 
favor  the  muses " — it  appears  nevertheless  that  Steno 
attended  the  lectures  and  dissections  which  were  con- 
ducted by  the  teachers  in  the  intervals  when  the  stu- 
dents were  not  on  duty. 

After  some  three  years  spent  at  the  University 
of  Copenhagen,  Stensen,  as  was  the  custom  of 
the  times,  went  to  pursue  his  post-graduate 
studies  in  a  foreign  university.  Bartholini  fur- 
nished him  with  a  letter  of  recommendation  to 
Professor  Blasius,  who  was  teaching  anatomy  at 
Amsterdam  in  Holland.  Amsterdam  had  be- 
come famous  during  the  seventeenth  century  for 
the  very  practical  character  of  its  anatomical 
teaching.  As  the  result  of  the  cordial  commen- 
dation of  Bartholini,  Stensen  became  an  inmate 
of  the  house  of  Professor  Blasius,  and  was  given 


BISHOP    STENSEN  :    ANATOMIST  I43 

special  opportunities  to  pursue  his  anatomical 
studies  for  himself.  He  had  been  but  a  very- 
short  time  at  Amsterdam,  when  he  made  the  dis- 
covery to  which  his  name  has  ever  since  been 
attached,  that  of  the  duct  of  the  parotid  gland. 
Stensen's  discovery  was  made  while  he  was  dis- 
secting the  head  of  a  sheep.  He  found  shortly 
afterwards,  however,  that  the  canal  could  be 
demonstrated  to  exist  in  the  dog,  though  it  was 
not  so  large  a  structure.  Blasius  seems  to  have 
been  rather  annoyed  at  the  fact  that  a  student, 
just  beginning  work  with  him,  should  make  so 
important  a  discovery,  and  wished  to  claim  the 
honor  of  it  for  himself.  There  is  no  doubt,  how- 
ever, now,  notwithstanding  the  discussion  over 
the  priority  of  the  discovery  which  took  place  at 
the  time,  that  Stensen  was  the  first  to  make  this 
important  observation. 

Not  long  before,  Wharton,  an  English  observer, 
had  demonstrated  the  existence  of  a  canal  lead- 
ing from  the  submaxillary  gland  into  the  mouth. 
This  might  have  been  expected  to  lead  to  the  dis- 
covery of  other  glandular  ducts,  but  so  far  had 
not.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  function  of  the 
parotid  gland  was  not  well  understood  at  this 
time.  During  the  discussion  as  to  priority  of 
discovery,  Steno  pointed  out  one  fact  which  he 
very  properly  considers  as  the  most  conclusive 
proof  that  Blasius  did  not  discover  the  duct  of 
the  gland.  He  says :  "  Blasius  shows  plainly  in 
his  treatise  '  De  Medicina  Generali '  that  he  has 
never  sought  for  the  duct,  for  he  does  not  assign 


144        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

to  it  either  the  proper  point  of  beginning  or  end- 
ing, and  assigns  to  the  parotid  gland  itself  so  un- 
worthy a  function  as  that  of  furnishing  warmth 
to  the  ear,  so  that  if  I  were  not  perfectly  sure 
of  having  once  shown  him  the  duct  myself,  I 
should  be  tempted  to  say  that  he  had  never 
seen  it." 

Bartholini  settled  the  controversy,  and  at  the 
same  time  removed  any  discouragement  that 
might  have  arisen  in  his  young  pupil's  mind,  by 
writing  to  him: — 

Your  assiduity  in  investigating  the  secrets  of  the 
human  body,  as  well  as  your  fortunate  discoveries,  are 
highly  praised  by  the  learned  of  your  country.  The 
fatherland  congratulates  itself  upon  such  a  citizen,  I 
upon  such  a  pupil,  through  whose  efforts  anatomy 
makes  daily  progress,  and  our  lympathic  vessels  are 
traced  out  more  and  more.  You  divide  honors  with 
Wharton,  since  you  have  added  to  his  internal  duct 
an  external  one,  and  have  thereby  discovered  the 
sources  of  the  saliva  concerning  which  many  have 
hitherto  dreamed  much,  but  which  no  one  has  (permit 
the  expression)  pointed  out  with  the  finger.  Con- 
tinue, my  Steno,  to  follow  the  path  to  immortal  glory 
which  true  anatomy  holds  out  to  you. 

Under  the  stimulus  of  such  encouragement,  it 
is  no  wonder  that  Stensen  continued  his  original 
work  with  eminent  success.  He  published  an  ex- 
tensive article  on  the  glands  of  the  eye  and  the 
vessels  of  the  nose. 

Bartholini  wrote  to  him  again :  "  Your  fame 
is  growing  from  day  to  day,  for  your  pen*  and 
your  sharp  eye  know  no  rest."     Later  he  wrote 


BISHOP    STENSEN  :    ANATOMIST  I45 

again :  "  You  may  count  upon  the  favor  of  the 
king  as  well  as  upon  the  applause  of  the  learned." 
After  three  years  at  the  University  of  Amster- 
dam, Steno  returned  to  Copenhagen,  where  he 
published  his  "Anatomical  Observations  Con- 
cerning the  Muscles  and  Glands."  It  was  in  this 
book  that  he  announced  his  persuasion  that  the 
heart  was  a  muscle.  As  he  said  himself,  "  the 
heart  has  been  considered  the  seat  of  natural 
warmth,  the  throne  of  the  soul;  but  if  you  ex- 
amine it  more  closely,  it  turns  out  to  be  nothing 
but  a  muscle.  The  men  of  the  past  would  not 
have  been  so  grossly  mistaken  with  regard  to  it, 
had  they  not  preferred  their  imaginary  theories 
to  the  results  of  the  simple  observation  of 
nature."  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  this  ob- 
servation created  a  very  great  sensation.  It  had 
much  to  do  with  overthrowing  certain  theoretic 
systems  of  medicine,  and  nearly  a  century  later 
the  distinguished  physiologist,  Haller,  did  not 
hesitate  to  proclaim  the  volume  in  which  it  occurs, 
as  a  "  golden  book." 

Stensen's  studies  in  anatomy  stamp  him  as  an 
original  genius  of  a  high  order,  and  this  is  all 
the  more  remarkable  because  his  career  occurs 
just  in  those  years  when  there  were  distinguished 
discoverers  in  anatomy  in  every  country  in 
Europe.  When  Stensen  began  his  work  in  anat- 
omy, Harvey  was  still  alive.  The  elder  Bartho- 
lini,  the  first  who  ever  established  an  anatomical 
museum,  was  another  of  his  contemporaries. 
Among  the  names   of   distinguished   anatomists 


I46         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

with  whom  Stensen  was  brought  intimately  in 
contact  during  the  course  of  his  studies  in  Hol- 
land, France  and  Italy  are  those  of  Swammer- 
dam,  Van  Home,  and  Malpighi.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  his  intercourse  with  such  men  sharp- 
ened his  own  intellectual  activity,  and  increased 
his  enthusiasm  for  original  investigation  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  mere  accumulation  of  infor- 
mation. 

His  contemporaries,  indeed,  exhausted  most  of 
the  adjectives  of  the  Latin  language  in  trying  to 
express  their  appreciation  of  his  acuity  of  ob- 
servation. He  was  spoken  of  as  oculatissimus — 
that  is,  as  being  all  eyes,  sabtilissimus,  acutissi- 
mus,  sagacissimus  in  his  knowledge  of  the  human 
body,  and  as  the  most  perspicacious  anatomist  of 
the  time.  Leibnitz  and  Haller  were  in  accord  in 
considering  him  one  of  the  greatest  of  anatom- 
ists. In  later  years  this  admiration  for  Stensen's 
genius  has  not  been  less  enthusiastically  ex- 
pressed. Haeser,  in  his  "  History  of  Medicine," 
the  third  edition  of  which  appeared  at  Jena  in 
1879,  says :  "Among  the  greatest  anatomists  of 
the  seventeenth  century  belongs  Nicholas  Steno, 
the  most  distinguished  pupil  of  Thomas  Bartho- 
lini.  Steno  was  rightly  considered  in  his  own 
time  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  anatomical  discov- 
erers. There  is  scarcely  any  part  of  the  human 
body  the  knowledge  of  which  was  not  rendered 
more  complete  by  his  investigations." 

The  most  valuable  discovery  made  by  Stensen 
was  undoubtedly  that  the  heart  is  a  muscle.     It 


BISHOP    STENSEN  I    ANATOMIST  I47 

must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  his  time,  Harvey's 
discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  was  not 
yet  generally  accepted;  indeed,  there  were  many 
who  considered  the  theory  (as  they  called  it)  of 
the  English  investigator  as  one  of  the  passing 
fads  of  medicine.  Two  significant  discoveries, 
made  after  Harvey,  served,  however,  to  establish 
the  theory  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  on  a 
firm  basis  and  to  make  it  a  definite  medical  doc- 
trine. The  most  important  of  these  was  Mal- 
pighi's  discovery  that  the  capillaries — that  is,  the 
minute  vessels  at  the  end  of  the  arterial  tree  on 
the  surface  of  the  body  and  in  various  organs — 
served  as  the  direct  connexion  between  the  veins 
and  the  arteries.  This  demonstrated  just  how 
the  blood  passed  from  the  arterial  to  the  venous 
system.  Scarcely  less  important,  however,  for 
the  confirmation  of  Harvey's  teaching  was  Sten- 
sen's  demonstration  of  the  muscular  character  of 
the  tissue  of  the  heart. 

Some  of  his  observations  upon  muscles  are  ex- 
tremely interesting,  and,  though  he  made  many 
mistakes  in  explaining  their  function,  he  added 
not  a  little  to  the  anatomical  and  physiological 
knowledge  of  the  time  in  their  regard.  He  seems 
to  have  been  one  of  the  first  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  in  the  higher  animals  the  heart  may  continue 
to  beat  for  a  considerable  time  after  the  animal 
is  apparently  dead ;  and,  indeed,  that  by  irritation 
of  the  removed  heart,  voluntary  contractions  may 
be  brought  about  which  will  continue  spontan- 
eously for  some  moments. 


I48         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

With  regard  to  the  objections  made  by  some, 
that  such  studies  as  these  upon  muscles  could 
scarcely  be  expected  to  produce  any  direct  result 
for  the  treatment  of  disease,  or  in  the  ordinary 
practice  of  medicine,  Stensen  said  in  reply  that  it 
is  only  on  the  basis  of  the  anatomical,  physio- 
logical, and  pathological  observation  that  prog- 
ress in  medicine  is  to  be  looked  for.  In  spite, 
then,  of  the  discouragement  of  the  many,  who 
look  always  for  immediate  practical  results, 
Stensen  continued  his  investigation,  and  even 
proposed  to  make  an  extended  study  of  the 
mechanism  of  the  muscular  action. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  there  had  gradually 
been  coming  into  his  life  another  element  which 
was  to  prove  more  absorbing  than  even  his  zeal 
for  scientific  discovery.  It  is  this  which  consti- 
tutes the  essential  index  of  the  man's  character 
and  has  been  sadly  misunderstood  by  many  of 
his  biographers. 

Sir  Michael  Foster,  of  Cambridge,  England, 
in  his  "  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Physiology," 
originally  delivered  as  the  Lane  Lectures  at 
Cooper  Medical  College,  San  Francisco,  said:— 

While  thus  engaged,  still  working  at  physiology,  Sten- 
sen turned  his  versatile  mind  to  other  problems,  as 
well  as  to  those  of  comparative  anatomy,  and  especially 
to  those  of  the  infant,  indeed  hardly  as  yet  born, 
science  of  geology.  His  work  "  De  solido  intra  soli- 
dum "  is  thought  by  geologists  to  be  a  brilliant  effort 
toward   the   beginning   of  their   science. 

In  1672  he  returned  for  a  while  to  his  native  city  of 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  149 

Copenhagen,  but  within  two  years  he  was  back  again 
at  Florence;  and  then  there  came  to  him,  while  as 
yet  a  young  man  of  some  thirty-six  summers,  a  sudden 
and  profound  change  in  his  life. 

In  his  early  days  he  had  heard  much,  too  much 
perhaps,  of  the  doctrines  of  Luther.  Probably  he 
had  been  repelled  by  the  austere  devotion  which  ruled 
the  paternal  roof.  And,  as  his  answer  to  Bossuet 
shows,  his  university  life  and  studies,  his  intercourse 
with  the  active  intellects  of  many  lands,  and  his  pas- 
sion for  inquiry  into  natural  knowledge,  had  freed 
him  from  passive  obedience  to  dogma.  He  doubtless, 
as  did  many  others  of  his  time,  looked  upon  himself 
as  one  of  the  enlightened,  as  one  raised  above  the 
barren  theological  questions  which  were  moving  the 
minds  of  lesser  men. 

Yet  it  was  out  of  this  sceptical  state  of  mind, 
that  life  in  Italy  and  intimate  contact  with  eccle- 
siastics and  religious,  so  often  said  to  be  likely 
not  to  have  any  such  effect,  brought  this  acute 
scientific  mind  into  the  Catholic  Church.  Nor 
did  he  become  merely  a  formal  adherent,  but  an 
ardent  believer,  and  then  an  enthusiastic  prose- 
lytizer.  One  American  writer  of  a  history  of 
medicine,  in  his  utter  failure  to  comprehend  or 
sympathize  with  the  change  that  came  over  Sten- 
sen, speaks  of  him  as  having  become  at  the  end 
of  his  life  a  mere  "  peripatetic  converter  of  here- 
tics. "  This  phase  of  Stensen's  life  has,  however, 
as  ample  significance  as  any  that  preceded  it. 

Steno's  expectations  of  the  professorship  of 
anatomy  at  Copenhagen  were  disappointed,  but 
the  appointment  went  to  Jacobson,  whose  work 
indeed  is  scarcely  less  distinguished  than  that  of 


150         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

his  unsuccessful  rival.  The  next  few  years  Sten- 
sen  passed  in  Paris,  where  he  was  assiduous  in 
making  dissections,  and  where  he  attracted  much 
attention ;  and  then,  somewhat  later,  in  Italy ;  in 
1665  an<^  x666  he  was  in  Rome.  Thence  he  went 
to  Florence,  in  order  to  perfect  himself  in  Italian. 
The  next  few  years  he  spent  in  this  city,  having 
received  the  appointment  of  body  physician  to 
the  Grand  Duke,  as  well  as  an  appointment  of 
visiting  physician,  as  we  would  call  it  now,  to 
the  Hospital  of  Santa  Maria  Nuova. 

It  was  while  at  Florence  that  the  whole  cur- 
rent of  Stensen's  life  was  changed  by  his  conver- 
sion to  Catholicity.  His  position  as  physician  to 
the  Hospital  of  Santa  Maria  Nuova  brought  him 
frequently  into  the  apothecary  shop  attached  to 
the  hospital.  As  a  result  he  came  to  know  very 
well  the  religious  in  charge  of  the  department, 
Sister  Maria  Flavia,  the  daughter  of  a  well- 
known  Tuscan  family.  At  this  time  she  had 
been  for  some  thirty-five  years  a  nun.  Before 
long  she  learned  that  the  distinguished  young 
physician,  at  this  time  scarcely  thirty  years  of 
age,  who  was  such  a  pleasant  gentleman  in  all 
his  ways,  was  a  Lutheran.  She  began,  as  she 
told  afterwards,  first  by  prayer,  and  then  by 
friendly  suggestions,  to  attempt  to  win  him  to  the 
Catholic  Church.  Stensen,  who  seems  already 
to  have  been  well-disposed  toward  the  Church, 
and  who  had  always  been  known  for  a  wonder- 
ful purity  of  heart  and  simplicity  of  character, 
listened  very  willingly  to  the  naive  words  of  the 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  151 

old  religious,  who  might  very  well  have  been  his 
mother. 

Many  years  later,  by  the  command  of  her  con- 
fessor, the  good  Sister  related  the  detailed  story 
of  his  conversion.  She  began  very  simply  by 
telling  him  one  day  that  if  he  did  not  accept  the 
true  Catholic  faith,  he  would  surely  go  to  hell. 
He  listened  to  this  without  any  impatience,  and 
she  said  it  a  number  of  other  times,  half  jokingly 
perhaps,  but  much  more  than  half  in  earnest. 
As  he  listened  so  kindly,  she  said  to  him  one  day 
that  he  must  pray  every  day  to  God  to  let  him 
know  the  truth.  This  he  promised  to  do  and,  as 
she  found  out  from  his  servant  (what  is  it  these 
nuns  do  not  find  out?)  he  did  pray  every  eve- 
ning. One  day,  while  he  was  in  the  apothecary 
shop,  the  Angelus  bell  rang,  and  she  asked  him 
to  say  the  Angelus.  He  was  perfectly  willing  to 
say  the  first  part  of  the  Hail  Mary,  but  he  did 
not  want  to  say  the  second  part,  as  he  did  not 
believe  in  the  invocation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
and  the  saints.  Then  she  asked  him  to  visit  the 
Church  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  the  Santissima 
Nunziata,  which  he  did.  After  this  she  sug- 
gested to  him  that  he  should  abstain  from  meat 
on  Fridays  and  Saturdays,  which  he  promised  to 
do,  and  which  the  good  nun  found  out  once  more 
from  his  servant,  he  actually  did  do.  And  then 
the  religious  thought  it  was  time  to  suggest  that 
he  should  consult  a  clergyman,  and  his  conver- 
sion was  not  long  delayed. 

Young  Stensen  seems  to  have  been  the  object 


152         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

of  solicitude  on  the  part  of  a  number  of  the 
good,  elderly  women  with  whom  he  was  brought 
in  contact.  He  discussed  with  Signora  Arnolfini 
the  great  difficulty  he  had  in  believeing  the  mys- 
tery of  the  Eucharist.  Another  good  woman,  the 
Signora  Lavinia  Felice,  seeing  how  interested  he 
was  in  things  Catholic,  succeeded  in  bringing  him 
to  the  notice  of  a  prominent  Jesuit  in  Florence. 
As  his  friend,  Sister  Maria  Flavia,  had  recom- 
mended the  same  Father  to  him,  he  followed  the 
advice  all  the  more  readily,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  his  last  doubts  were  solved. 

It  was  after  his  conversion  that  Stensen  re- 
ceived his  invitation  to  become  the  professor  of 
anatomy  at  the  University  of  Copenhagen. 
Much  as  he  had  become  attached  to  Florence,  the 
thought  of  returning  to  his  native  city  was  sweet ; 
and  then  besides  he  hoped  that  he  might  be  able 
to  influence  his  countrymen  in  their  views  toward 
the  Catholic  Church.  It  was  not  long,  however, 
before  the  bigotry  of  his  compatriots  made  life 
so  unpleasant  for  him  in  Copenhagen  that  he  re- 
signed his  position  and  returned  to  Italy.  Vari- 
ous official  posts  in  Florence  were  open  for  him, 
but  now  he  had  resolved  to  devote  himself  to  the 
service  of  the  Church,  and  so  he  became  a  priest. 
His  contemporary,  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of 
Florence,  said  with  regard  to  him :  "Already  as 
a  member  of  a  Protestant  sect  he  had  lived  a  life 
of  innocence  and  had  practised  all  the  moral  vir- 
tues. After  his  conversion  he  had  marked  out 
for  himself  so  severe  a  method  of  life  and  had 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  153 

remained  so  true  to  it  that  in  a  very  short  time 
he  reached  a  high  degree  of  perfection."  The 
Archbishop  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he  had 
become  a  man  of  constant  union  with  God  and 
entirely  dead  to  himself.  There  was  very  little 
hesitation,  then,  in  accepting  him  as  a  candidate 
for  the  priesthood,  and  as  his  knowledge  of  the- 
ology was  very  thorough,  most  of  the  delay  in 
raising  him  to  that  dignity  came  from  his  own 
humility  and  his  desire  to  prepare  himself  prop- 
erly for  the  privilege.  He  made  the  exercises  of 
St.  Ignatius  as  part  of  his  preparation,  and  after 
his  ordination  it  was  a  source  of  remark  with 
how  much  devotion  he  said  his  first  and  all  suc- 
ceeding Masses.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
piety  of  Stensen's  life  attracted  great  attention. 
At  this  time  he  was  in  frequent  communication 
with  such  men  as  Spinoza  and  Leibnitz,  the  dis- 
tinguished philosophers.  It  is  curious  to  think 
of  the  ardent  mystic,  the  pantheistic  philosopher, 
and  the  speculative  scientist,  so  different  in  char- 
acter, having  many  interests  in  common. 

It  was  during  these  years  in  Italy  that  Stensen 
did  what  must  be  considered,  undoubtedly,  his 
most  important  work,  even  more  important,  if 
possible,  than  his  anatomical  discoveries.  This 
was  his  foundation  of  the  science  of  geology.  As 
has  been  well  said  in  a  prominent  text-book  of 
geology,  his  book  on  this  subject  sets  him  in  that 
group  of  men  who  as  prophets  of  science  often 
run  far  ahead  of  their  times  to  point  out  the  path 
which  later  centuries  will  follow  in  the  road  of 


154         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

knowledge.  It  is  rather  surprising  to  find  that 
the  seventeenth  century  must  enjoy  the  privilege 
of  being  considered  the  cradle  of  geological 
knowledge.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that 
the  great  principles  of  the  science  were  laid  down 
in  Stensen's  little  book,  which  he  intended  only 
to  be  an  introduction  to  a  more  extensive  work, 
but  the  latter  was  unfortunately  never  completed, 
nor,  indeed,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  decide  now, 
ever  seriously  begun. 

One  of  the  basic  principles  of  the  science  of 
geology  Stensen  taught  as  follows :  "  If  a  given 
body  of  definite  form,  produced  according  to  the 
laws  of  nature,  be  carefully  examined,  it  will 
show  in  itself  the  place  and  manner  of  its  origin." 
This  principle  he  showed  would  apply  so  com- 
prehensively that  the  existence  of  many  things, 
hitherto  apparently  inexplicable,  became  rather 
easy  of  solution.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
before  this  time  two  explanations  for  the  exist- 
ence of  peculiar  bodies,  or  of  ordinary  bodies,  in 
peculiar  places,  had  been  offered.  According  to 
one  school  of  thought,  the  fossils  found  deep  in 
the  earth,  or  sometimes  in  the  midst  of  rocks, 
had  been  created  there.  It  was  as  if  the  crea- 
tive force  had  run  beyond  the  ordinary  bounds 
of  nature  and  had  produced  certain  things,  ordi- 
narily associated  with  life,  even  in  the  midst  of 
dead  matter.  The  other  explanation  suggested 
was  that  the  flood  had  in  its  work  of  destruction 
upon  earth  caused  many  anomalous  displacements 
of  living  things,  and  had  buried  some  of  the  ani- 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  155 

mals  under  such  circumstances  that  later  they 
were  found  even  beneath  rocks,  or  deep  down  in 
the  earth,  far  beyond  where  the  animals  could  be 
supposed  to  have  penetrated  by  any  ordinary 
means  during  life. 

Stensen  had  observed  very  faithfully  the  vari- 
ous strata  that  are  to  be  found  wherever  special 
appearances  of  the  earth's  surface  were  exposed, 
or  wherever  deep  excavations  were  made.  His 
explanation  of  how  these  various  strata  are 
formed  will  serve  to  show,  perhaps  better  than 
anything  else,  how  far  advanced  he  was  in  his 
realization  of  ideas  that  are  supposed  to  belong 
only  to  modern  geology.  He  said :  "  The  pow- 
dery layers  of  the  earth's  surface  must  necessar- 
ily at  some  time  have  been  held  in  suspension  in 
water,  from  which  they  were  precipitated  by  their 
own  weight..  The  movement  of  the  fluid  scat- 
tered the  precipitate  here  and  there  and  gave  to 
it  a  level  surface." 

"  Bodies  of  considerable  circumference,"  Sten- 
sen continues,  "  which  are  found  in  the  various 
layers  of  the  earth,  followed  the  laws  of  gravity 
as  regards  their  position  and  their  relations  to 
one  another.  The  powdery  material  of  the 
earth's  strata  took  on  so  completely  the  form  of 
the  bodies  which  it  surrounded  that  even  the 
smallest  apertures  became  filled  up  and  the  pow- 
dery layer  fitted  accurately  to  the  surface  of  the 
object  and  even  took  something  of  its  polish." 

With  regard  to  the  composition  of  the  various 
strata  of  the  earth,  the  father  of  geology  con- 


156         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

sidered  that  if  in  a  layer  of  rock  all  the  portions 
are  of  the  same  kind  there  is  no  reason  to  deny 
that  such  a  layer  came  into  existence  at  the  time 
of  creation,  when  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth 
was  covered  with  fluid.  If,  however,  in  any  one 
stratum  portions  of  another  stratum  are  found, 
or  if  the  remains  of  plants  or  animals  occur,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  such  a  stratum  had  not  its  origin 
at  the  time  of  creation,  but  came  into  existence 
later. 

If  there  is  to  be  found  in  a  stratum  traces  of 
sea  salt,  or  the  remains  of  sea  animals,  or  por- 
tions of  vessels,  or  such  like  objects,  which  are 
only  to  be  encountered  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea, 
then  it  must  be  considered  that  this  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface  once  was  below  the  sea  level, 
though  it  may  happen  that  this  occurred  only  by 
the  accident  of  a  flood  of  some  kind.  The  great 
distance  from  the  sea,  or  other  body  of  water,  at 
the  present  time,  may  be  due  to  the  sinking  of 
the  water  level  in  the  neighborhood,  or  by  the 
rising  up  of  a  mountain  from  some  internal  ter- 
restrial cause  in  the  interval  of  time.  He  con- 
tinues : — 

If  one  finds  in  any  layer  remains  of  branches  of 
trees,  or  herbs,  then  it  is  only  right  to  conclude  that 
these  objects  were  brought  together  because  of  flood 
or  of  some  such  condition  in  the  place  where  they 
are  now  found.  If  in  a  layer  coal  and  ashes  and 
burnt  clay  or  other  scorched  bodies  are  found,  then 
it  seems  sure  that  some  place  in  the  neighborhood  of 
a  watercourse  a  fire  took  place,  and  this  is  all  the 
more  sure  when  the  whole  layer  consists  of  ashes  and 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  157 

coal.  Whenever  in  the  same  place  the  material  of 
which  all  the  layers  is  composed  is  the  same,  there 
seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  fluid  to  which  the 
stratum  owes  its  origin  did  not  at  different  times  ob- 
tain  different  material   for  its   building  purposes. 

In  respect  to  the  mountains  and  their  forma- 
tion, Stensen  said  very  definitely: — 

All  the  mountains  which  we  see  now  have  not  ex- 
isted from  the  beginning  of  things.  Mountains  do  not, 
however,  grow  as  do  plants.  The  stones  of  which 
mountains  are  composed  have  only  a  certain  analogy 
with  the  bones  of  animals,  but  have  no  similarity  in 
structure  or  in  origin,  nor  have  they  the  same  func- 
tion and  purpose.  Mountain  ranges,  or  chains  of 
mountains  as  some  prefer  to  call  them,  do  not  always 
run  in  certain  directions,  though  this  has  sometimes 
been  claimed.  Such  claims  correspond  neither  to  rea- 
son nor  to  observation.  Mountains  may  be  very 
much  disturbed  in  the  course  of  years.  Mountain 
peaks  rise  and  fall  somewhat.  Chasms  open  and  shut 
here  and  there  in  them,  and  though  there  are  those 
who  pretend  that  it  is  only  the  credulous  who  will 
accept  the  stories  of  such  happenings,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  they  have  been  established  on  trustworthy 
evidence. 

In  the  course  of  his  observations  in  Italy, 
Stensen  had  seen  many  mussel  shells,  which  had 
been  gathered  from  various  layers  of  the  earth's 
surface.  With  regard  to  the  shells  themselves, 
he  said  that  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  they 
had  come  as  the  excretion  of  the  mantle  of  the 
mussel,  and  that  the  differences  that  could  be 
noted  in  them  were  in  accordance  with  the  vary- 
ing forms  of  these  animals.  He  pointed  out, 
however,  that  some  of  the  mussel  shells  found  in 


I58         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

strata  of  rock  were  really  mussel  shells  in  every 
respect  as  regards  the  material  of  which  they 
were  composed  as  well  as  their  interior  structure 
and  their  external  form,  so  that  there  could  be 
no  possible  question  of  their  origin.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  certain  number  of  the  so-called  mussel 
shells  were  not  composed  of  the  ordinary  mate- 
rials of  which  such  shells  are  usually  made  up ; 
but  had  indeed  only  the  external  form  of  genuine 
shells.  Stensen  considered,  however,  that  even 
these  must  be  regarded  as  originating  in  real 
mussel  shells,  the  original  substance  having  been 
later  on  replaced  by  other  material.  He  ex- 
plained this  replacement  process  in  very  much 
the  same  way  that  we  now  suggest  the  explana- 
tion of  various  processes  of  petrification.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  in  this  he  went  far  beyond  his 
contemporaries,  and  pointed  out  very  clearly 
what  was  to  be  the  teaching  of  generations  long 
after  his  own. 

The  same  principles  he  applied  to  mussel  shells, 
Stensen  considered  must  have  their  application 
also  to  all  other  portions  of  animal  bodies,  teeth, 
bones,  whole  skeletons,  and  even  more  perishable 
animal  materials  that  might  be  found  buried  in 
the  earth's  strata.  His  treatment  of  the  question 
of  the  remains  of  plants  was  quite  as  satisfactory 
as  that  of  the  animals.  He  distinguished  be- 
tween the  impressions  of  plants,  the  petrification 
of  plants,  the  carbonization  of  plants,  and  then 
dwelt  somewhat  on  the  tendency  of  certain  min- 
erals to  form  dendrites,  that  is,  branching  pro- 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  159 

, cesses  which  look  not  unlike  plants.  He  pointed 
out  how  easy  it  is  to  be  deceived  by  these  ap- 
pearances, and  stated  very  clearly  the  distinction 
between  real  plants  and  such  simulated  ones. 

It  will  be  scarcely  necessary  for  us  to  apolo- 
gize for  having  given  so  much  space  to  Stensen's 
work  on  geology.  Many  distinguished  scientists, 
however,  have  insisted  that  no  greater  advance 
at  the  birth  of  a  science  was  ever  made  than  that 
which  Stensen  accomplished  in  his  geological 
work.  Hoffman  says  that  after  carefully  study- 
ing the  work,  he  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
of  the  successors  of  Stensen,  no  student  of  the 
mountains  down  to  Werner's  day  had  succeeded 
in  comprehending  so  many  fruitful  points  of  view 
in  geology.  None  of  his  great  successors  in 
geology  has  succeeded  in  introducing  so  many 
new  ideas  into  the  science  as  the  first  great  ob- 
server. For  several  centuries  most  of  his  suc- 
cessors in  geology  remained  far  behind  him  in 
creative  genius,  and  so  there  is  little  progress 
worth  while  noting  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
method  of  earth  formation,  until  almost  the  be- 
ginning of  the  nineteenth  century,  though  his 
little  book  was  written  in  1668  and  1669. 

Leibnitz  regretted  very  much  that  Stensen  did 
not  complete  his  work  on  geology  as  he  origin- 
ally intended.  Had  he  succeedeed  in  gathering 
together  all  of  his  original  observations,  illus- 
trated by  the  material  he  had  collected,  his  work 
would  have  had  much  greater  effect.  As  it  was, 
the  golden  truth  which  he  had  expressed  in  such 


l60         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

few  words,  without  being  able  always  to  state 
just  how  he  had  come  to  his  conclusions,  was 
only  of  avail  to  science  in  a  limited  way.  Men 
had  to  repeat  his  observations  long  years  after- 
wards in  order  to  realize  the  truth  of  what  he 
had  laid  down.  Leibnitz  considered  that  it  took 
more  than  a  century  for  geological  science  to 
reach  the  point  at  which  it  had  been  left  by 
Steno's  work,  and  which  he  had  reached  at  a 
single  bound.  There  is  scarcely  a  single  modern 
geologist  interested  at  all  in  the  history  of  the 
science  who  has  not  paid  a  worthy  tribute  to 
Steno's  great  basic  discoveries  in  the  science.  It 
was  not  a  matter  for  surprise,  then,  that  the  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Geologists  which  met  at 
Bologna  in  1881  asembled  at  his  tomb  in  Flor- 
ence in  order  to  do  him  honor,  after  the  regular 
sessions  of  the  Congress  had  closed.  They 
erected  to  his  memory  a  tablet  with  the  follow- 
ing scription :  "  Nicolae  Stenonis  imaginem 
vides  hospes  quam  aere  collato  docti  amplius 
mille  ex  universe  terrarum  orbe  insculpendam 
curarunt  in  memoriam  ejus  diei  IV  cal.  Octobr. 
an.  MDCCCLXXXI  quo  geologi  post  conven- 
tum  Bononiae  habitum  praeside  Joanne  Capellinio 
equite  hue  peregrinati  sunt  atque  adstantibus 
legatis  flor  Municipii  et  R.  Instituti  Altiorum 
doctrinarum  cineres  viri  inter  geologos  et  ana- 
tomicos  praestantissimi  in  hujus  templi  hypogaeo 
laurea  corona  honoris  gratique  animi  ergo  hones- 
taverunt."  * 

1  You   behold   here,   traveller,   the  bust   of    Nicholas 
Steno  as  it  was  set  up  by  more  than  a  thousand  scientists 


BISHOP    STENSEN  :    ANATOMIST  l6l 

Stensen's  work  brought  him  in  contact  with 
some  of  the  distinguished  men  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  all  of  whom  learned  to  appreciate  his 
breadth  of  intelligence  and  acuity  of  judgment. 
We  have  already  mentioned  his  epistolary  rela- 
tion with  Spinoza,  and  have  said  something  about 
the  controversy  with  Leibnitz,  into'  which,  in  spite 
of  his  disinclination  to  controversy  generally,  he 
was  drawn  by  the  circumstances  of  the  time  and 
the  solicitation  of  friends.  Another  great  thinker 
of  the  century  with  whom  he  was  brought  into 
intimate  relationship  was  Des  Cartes,  the  distin- 
guished philosopher.  In  fact,  Des  Cartes's  sys- 
tem of  thought  influenced  Stensen  not  a  little, 
and  he  felt,  when  describing  the  function  of 
muscles  in  the  human  body,  and  especially  when 
he  demonstrated  that  the  heart  was  a  muscle,  that 
the  mechanical  notions  he  was  thus  introducing 
into  anatomy  were  likely  to  prove  confirmatory 
of  Des  Cartes's  philosophic  speculations.  Almost 
more  than  any  other,  Stensen  was  the  father  of 
many  ideas  that  have  since  become  common,  with 
regard  to  the  physics  of  the  human  body  and  its 
qualities  as  a  machine. 

With  his   breadth   of  view,    from   familiarity 

from  all  over  the  world,  as  a  memorial  to  him,  on  the 
fourth  of  the  Kalends  of  October,  1881.  The  geolo- 
gists of  the  world,  after  their  meeting  in  Bologna, 
under  the  presidency  of  Count  John  Capellini,  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  his  tomb,  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
chosen  representatives  of  the  municipality,  and  of  the 
learned  professors  of  the  University,  honored  the  mor- 
tal ashes  of  this  man,  illustrious  among  geologists  and 
anatomists. 


l62        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

with  the  progress  of  science  generally  in  his  time, 
Steno's  discussions  of  the  reason  for  the  lack  of 
exact  knowledge  and  for  the  prevalence  of  error, 
in  spite  of  enthusiastic  investigation,  are  worth 
while  appreciating.  He  considered  that  the  rea- 
son why  so  many  portions  of  natural  science  are 
still  in  doubt  is  that  in  the  investigation  of  nat- 
tural  objects  no  careful  distinction  is  made  be- 
tween what  is  known  to  a  certainty  and  what  is 
known  only  with  a  certain  amount  of  assurance. 
He  discusses  the  question  of  deductive  and  in- 
ductive science,  and  considers  that  even  those  who 
depend  on  experience  will  not  infrequently  be 
found  in  error,  because  their  conclusions  are 
wider  than  their  premises,  and  because  it  only 
too  often  happens  that  they  admit  principles  as 
true  for  which  they  have  no  sure  evidence. 
Stensen  considered  it  important,  therefore,  not  to 
hurry  on  in  the  explanation  of  things,  but,  so  far 
as  possible,  to  cling  to  old-time  principles  that 
had  been  universally  accepted,  since  nearly  al- 
ways these  would  be  found  to  contain  fruitful 
germs  of  truth. 

He  was  universally  acknowledged  as  one  of 
the  greatest  original  thinkers  of  his  time,  and  his 
conversion  to  the  Church  did  much  to  dissipate 
religious  prejudices  among  those  of  German 
nationality.  His  influence  over  distinguished 
visitors  who  came  to  Florence,  and  who  were 
very  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of  making  his 
acquaintance,  was  such  that  not  a  few  Northern 
visitors  became,  like  himself,  converts  to  the 
Church. 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  163 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  that  the  request  of 
the  Duke  of  Hanover  came  that  he  should  con- 
sent to  become  the  bishop  of  his  capital  city.  It 
was  only  after  Stensen  had  been  put  under  holy 
obedience  that  he  would  consent  to  accept  the 
proffered  dignity.  His  first  thought  was  to  dis- 
tribute all  his  goods  among  the  poor,  and  betake 
himself  even  without  shoes  on  his  feet,  on  a 
pedestrian  journey  to  Rome.  First,  however,  he 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  Loretto,  where  he  arrived 
so  overcome  by  the  fatigue  of  the  journey  that 
the  clergyman  who  took  care  of  him  while  there, 
insisted  on  his  accepting  a  pair  of  shoes  from 
him,  though  he  could  not  prevail  upon  him  to 
travel  in  any  other  way  than  on  foot. 

His  first  action,  after  his  consecration  as 
bishop,  was  to  write  a  letter,  sending  his  epis- 
copal benediction  to  Sister  Maria  Flavia,  to  whom 
he  felt  he  owed  the  great  privilege  of  his  life. 
His  lasting  sense  of  satisfaction  and  consolation 
in  his  change  of  religion  may  be  appreciated  from 
what  is,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  personal 
document  that  we  have  from  Stensen's  own  hand, 
in  which,  on  the  eighteenth  anniversary  of  his 
conversion,  he  writes  to  a  friend  to  describe  his 
feelings.  "  To-morrow,"  he  says,  "  I  shall  finish, 
God  willing,  the  eighteenth  year  of  my  happy  life 
as  a  member  of  the  Church.  I  wish  to  acknowl- 
edge once  more  my  thankfulness  for  the  part 
which  you  took  under  God  in  my  conversion. 
As  I  hope  to  have  the  grace  to  be  grateful  to  Him 
forever,  so  I  sigh  for  the  opportunity  to  express 


164         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

my  thank fulnes  to  you  and  your  family.  I  can 
feel  that  my  own  ingratitude  toward  God,  my 
slowness  in  His  service,  make  me  unworthy  of 
His  graces ;  but  I  hope  that  you  who  have  helped 
me  to  enter  his  service  will  not  cease  to  pray,  so 
that  I  may  obtain  pardon  for  the  past  and  grace 
for  the  future,  in  order  in  some  measure  to  repay 
all  the  favors  that  have  been  conferred  on  me." 

The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  his  life  as 
a  bishop  was  his  insistence  on  poverty  as  the  prin- 
cipal element  of  his  existence.  He  refused  to 
enter  his  diocese  in  state  in  the  carriage  which 
the  Duke  offered  to  provide  for  him,  but  pro- 
ceeded there  on  foot.  No  question  of  supposed 
dignity  could  make  him  employ  a  number  of  ser- 
vants, and  his  only  retainers  were  converts  made 
by  himself,  who  helped  in  the  household  and 
whom  he  treated  quite  as  equals.  He  became 
engaged  in  one  controversy  on  religious  matters, 
but  said  that  he  did  not  consider  that  converts 
had  ever  been  made  by  controversies.  He  com- 
pared it,  indeed,  to  the  gladiatorial  contests  in 
which  the  contestants  had  their  heads  completely 
enveloped  in  armor,  so  as  to  prevent  any  possible 
penetration  of  the  weapons  of  an  opponent.  He 
insisted  especially  that  in  religious  controversies 
the  contending  parties  do  not  realize  the  signifi- 
cance given  to  words  by  each  other,  and  that 
therefore  no  good  can  result. 

After  a  time,  Stensen  did  not  find  his  work  in 
Hamburg  very  satisfactory,  because  it  was  typi- 
cally a  missionary  country,  and  the  Jesuit  mis- 


bishop  stensen:  anatomist  165 

sionaries  who  had  been  introduced  were  accom- 
plishing all  that  could  be  hoped  for.  Accord- 
ingly, when  the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin 
became  a  convert  to  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
asked  that  Stensen  should  be  sent  as  a  bishop 
into  his  dukedom,  the  request  was  complied  with. 
Here,  in  the  hardest  kind  of  labor  as  a  mission- 
ary, and  in  the  midst  of  poverty  that  was  truly 
apostolic,  Stensen  worked  out  the  remaining 
years  of  his  life.  At  his  death  he  was  looked 
upon  as  almost  a  saint.  Notwithstanding  his 
close  relationship  with  two  reigning  princes,  he 
did  not  leave  enough  personal  effects  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  his  funeral.  Besides  his  bishop's 
ring,  and  the  very  simple  episcopal  cross  he  wore, 
he  had  nothing  of  any  value  except  some  relics 
of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  St.  Ignatius  Loyola,  and 
St.  Philip  Neri,  which  he  had  prized  above  all 
other  treasures. 

His  missionary  labors  had  not  been  marked  by 
any  very  striking  success  in  the  number  of  con- 
verts made.  In  this  his  life  would  seem  to  have 
been  a  bitter  personal  disappointment.  He  never 
looked  upon  it  as  such,  however,  but  continued 
to  be  eminently  cheerful  and  friendly  until  the 
end.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  influence  of  his 
career  was  to  be  felt  much  more  two  centuries 
after  his  death  than  during  his  lifetime.  At  the 
present  moment,  his  life  is  well  known  in  north- 
ern Germany,  thanks  to  the  biographic  sketch 
written  by  Father  Plenkers  for  the  Stimmen 
aus  Maria  Laach,  which  has  been  very  widely 


l66        CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

circulated  since  its  appearance  in  1884.  Some- 
thing of  the  reaction  among  scientific  minds  in 
Germany  toward  a  healthier  orthodoxy  of  feel- 
ing, with  regard  to  great  religious  questions,  is 
undoubtedly  due  to  the  spread  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  career  of  the  great  anatomist  and  geologist 
who  gave  up  his  scientific  work  for  the  sake  of 
the  spread  of  the  higher  truth. 

After  his  death  the  Medici  family  asked  for 
and  obtained  the  privilege  of  having  his  body 
buried  in  San  Lorenzo  at  Florence,  with  the 
members  of  the  princely  Medici  house.  More 
and  more  do  visitors  realize  that  the  tablet  over 
his  remains  chronicles  the  death  of  a  man  who 
was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  world's  great  scien- 
tists, and  one  of  the  most  original  thinkers  of  his 
time,  and  that  time  a  period  greatly  fertile  in  the 
historv  of  science. 


VII. 

ABBE    HAUY,    FATHER   OF   CRYS- 
TALLOGRAPHY. 


THEY  continue  this  day  as  they 
were  created,  perfect  in  number 
and  measure  and  weight,  and  from 
the  ineffaceable  characters  impressed 
on  them  we  may  learn  that  those 
aspirations  after  accuracy  in  measure- 
ment, truth  in  statement,  and  justice 
in  action,  which  we  reckon  among 
our  noblest  attributes  as  men,  are 
ours  because  they  are  essential  con- 
stituents of  the  image  of  Him  who  in 
the  beginning  created  not  only  heaven 
and  earth,  but  the  materials  of 
which  heaven  and  earth  consist. — 
Clerk  Maxwell  On  the  Molecule, 
"Nature,"  Vol.  VIII.     1873. 


RENE  JUST  HAUY 


VII. 

ABBE  HAUY,1  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY 

MODERN  learning  is  gradually  losing  some- 
thing of  the  self-complacency  that  char- 
acterized it  in  so  constantly  harboring  the 
thought  that  the  most  important  discoveries  in 
physical  science  came  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
A  more  general  attention  to  critical  history  has 
led  to  the  realization  that  many  of  the  primal 
discoveries  whose  importance  made  the  develop- 
ment of  modern  science  possible,  came  in  earlier 
centuries,  though  their  full  significance  was  not 
then  fully  appreciated.  The  foundations  of  most 
of  our  modern  sciences  were,  indeed,  laid  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  but  some  of  them  came  much 
earlier.  It  is  genius  alone  that  is  able  to  break 
away  from  established  traditions  of  knowledge, 
and,  stepping  across  the  boundary  into  the  un- 
known, blaze  a  path  along  which  it  will  be  easy 
for  subsequent  workers  to  follow.  Only  in  re- 
cent years  has  the  due  meed  of  appreciation  for 
these  great  pioneers  become  part  of  the  precious 
traditions  of  scientific  knowledge. 

We  have  seen  that  clergymen  were  great  ori- 
ginal investigators  in  science  in  the  older  times 
and  we  shall  find,  though  it  may  be  a  source  of 

1  Pronounced  a-ue  (Century  Dictionary),  nearly 
represented  by  ah-we. 

169 


170        CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN   SCIENCE 

astonishment  to  most  people  that  even  our  mod- 
ern science  has  had  some  supreme  original  work- 
ers, during  the  last  two  centuries,  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Catholic  clergy. 

The  eighteenth  century  was  not  behind  the 
seventeenth  in  original  contributions  made  to 
science  by  clergymen.  About  the  middle  of  the 
century,  a  Premonstratensian  monk,  Procopius 
Dirwisch  by  name,  of  the  little  town  of  Prenditz 
in  Bohemia,  demonstrated  the  identity  of  elec- 
trical phenomena  with  lightning,  thus  anticipat- 
ing the  work  of  our  own  Franklin.  Dirwisch 
dared  to  set  up  a  lightning-conductor,  by  which 
during  thunderstorms  he  obtained  sparks  from 
clouds,  and  also  learned  to  appreciate  the  danger 
involved  in  this  experiment.  When,  in  1751,  he 
printed  his  article  on  this  subject,  he  pointed  out 
this  danger.  His  warning,  however,  was  not 
always  heeded,  and  at  least  one  subsequent  ex- 
perimenter was  struck  dead  by  a  charge  of  elec- 
tricity. 

Just  at  the  junction  of  the  last  two  centuries, 
Father  Piazzi  enriched  the  realm  of  science  by 
one  of  the  most  important  of  modern  discoveries 
in  astronomy.  On  the  night  of  31  December, 
1800 — 1  January,  1801,  he  discovered  the  little 
planet  Ceres.  This  was  the  first  of  the  asteroids, 
so  many  more  of  which  were  to  be  revealed  to 
astronomical  study  during  the  next  half-century. 
Father  Piazzi's  discovery  was  made,  not  by 
accident,  but  as  the  result  of  detailed  astronom- 
ical work  of  the  most  painstaking  character.     Pie 


ABBE  HAUY  :  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     I/I 

had  set  out  to  make  a  map  of  the  heavens,  and  to 
determine  and  locate  the  absolute  position  of  all 
the  visible  stars.  He  had  succeeded  in  cata- 
loguing over  7,000  stars  when  his  attention  was 
called  to  one,  hitherto  supposed  to  be  fixed,  which 
he  found  had  moved,  during  the  interval  between 
two  observations,  from  its  original  position.  He 
made  still  other  observations,  and  thus  deter- 
mined the  fact  that  it  was  a  planetoid  and  not  a 
fixed  star  with  which  he  had  to  deal.  Needless 
to  say,  his  discovery  proved  a  strong  incentive  to 
patient  astronomical  study  of  the  same  kind; 
and  it  is  to  these,  rather  than  to  great  single  dis- 
coveries, that  we  owe  whatever  progress  in 
astronomy  was  made  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

Contemporary  with  both  of  these  last-men- 
tioned men,  and  worthy  to  share  in  the  scientific 
honors  that  were  theirs,  was  the  Abbe  Hauy, 
who  toward  the  end  of  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  founded  the  science  of  crys- 
tallography; made  a  series  of  observations  the 
value  of  which  can  never  be  disputed,  originated 
theories  some  of  which  have  served  down  to  our 
own  time  as  the  basis  of  crystal  knowledge,  and 
attracted  the  attention  of  many  students  to  the 
new  science  because  of  his  charming  personal 
character  and  his  winning  teaching  methods. 
His  life  is  a  typical  example  of  the  value  of  work 
done  in  patient  obscurity,  founded  on  observa- 
tion, and  not  on  brilliant  theories ;  and  what  he 
accomplished  stamps  him  as  one  of  the  great 


172         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

scientific  geniuses  of  all  time — one  of  the  men 
who  widened  the  bounds  of  knowledge  in  direc- 
tions hitherto  considered  inaccessible  to  the  ordi- 
nary methods  of  human  investigation. 

It  is  a  commonplace  of  the  lecturer  on  popu- 
lar science  at  the  present  day,  that  the  impulse  to 
the  development  of  our  modern  scientific  dis- 
coveries which  became  so  marked  toward  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  due  in  a  note- 
worthy degree  to  the  work  of  the  French  Ency- 
clopedists. Their  bringing  together  of  all  the 
details  of  knowledge  in  a  form  in  which  it  could 
be  readily  consulted,  and  in  which  previous  prog- 
ress and  the  special  lines  of  advance  could  be 
realized,  might  be  expected  to  prove  a  fruitful 
source  of  suggestive  investigation.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  however,  a  detailed  knowledge  of  the 
past  in  science  often  seems  to  be  rather  a  hind- 
rance than  a  help  to  original  genius,  always 
prone  to  take  its  own  way  if  not  too  much  dis- 
turbed by  the  conventional  knowledge  already 
gained.  Most  of  the  great  discoverers  in  science 
were  comparatively  young  men  when  they  began 
their  careers  as  original  investigators ;  and  it  was 
apparently  their  freedom  from  the  incubus  of  too 
copious  information  that  left  their  minds  un- 
trammelled to  follow  their  own  bent  in  seeking 
for  causes  where  others  had  failed  to  find  any 
hints  of  possible  developments. 

This  was  certainly  the  case  with  regard  to 
many  of  those  distinguished  founders  who  lived 
in  centuries  prior  to  the  nineteenth.     Most  of 


abbe  hauy:  father  of  crystallography    173 

them  were  men  under  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
not  one  of  them  had  been  noted,  before  he  began 
his  own  researches,  for  the  extent  of  his  knowl- 
edge in  the  particular  department  of  science  in 
which  his  work  was  to  prove  so  fruitful.  Their 
lives  illustrate  the  essential  difference  there  is 
between  theory  and  observation  in  science.  The 
theorizer  reaches  conclusions  that  are  popular  as 
a  rule  in  his  own  generation,  and  receives  the 
honor  due  to  a  progressive  scientist ;  the  observer 
usually  has  his  announcements  of  what  he  has 
actually  seen  scouted  by  those  who  are  engaged 
in  the  same  studies,  and  it  is  only  succeeding 
generations  who  appreciate  how  much  he  really 
accomplished. 

This  was  especially  exemplified  in  the  case  of 
the  Abbe  Hauy,  whose  work  in  crystallography 
was  to  mean  so  much.  What  he  learned  was  not 
from  books,  but  from  contact  with  the  actual  ob- 
jects of  his  department  of  science;  and  it  is  be- 
cause the  example  of  a  life  like  this  can  scarcely 
fail  to  serve  a  good  purpose  for  the  twentieth- 
century  student,  in  impressing  the  lesson  of  the 
value  of  observation  as  opposed  to  theory,  that 
its  details  are  retold. 

Rene  Just  Hauy  was  born  28  February,  1743, 
in  the  little  village  of  Saint- Just,  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Oise,  somewhat  north  of  the  center  of 
France.  Like  many  another  great  genius,  he 
was  the  son  of  very  poor  parents.  His  father 
was  a  struggling  linen-weaver,  who  was  able  to 
support    himself    only   with    difficulty.     At   first 


174        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

there  seemed  to  be  no  other  prospect  for  his  eld- 
est son  than  to  succeed  to  his  father's  business. 
Certainly  there  seemed  to  be  no  possibility  that 
he  should  be  able  to  gain  his  livelihood  by  any 
other  means  than  by  the  work  of  his  hands. 

Fortunately,  however,  there  was  in  Haiiy's- 
native  town  a  Premonstratensian  monastery,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  some  of  the  monks  began 
to  notice  that  the  son  of  the  weaver  was  of  an 
especially  pious  disposition  and  attended  church 
ceremonies  very  faithfully.  The  chance  was 
given  to  him  to  attend  the  monastery  school,  and 
he  succeeded  admirably  in  his  studies.  As  a 
consequence,  the  prior  had  his  attention  directed 
to  the  boy,  and  found  in  him  the  signs  of  a  supe- 
rior intelligence.  He  summoned  the  lad's  par- 
ents and  discussed  with  them  the  possibility  of 
obtaining  for  their  son  an  education.  There 
were  many  difficulties  in  the  way,  but  the  prin- 
cipal one  was  their  absolute  financial  inability  to 
help  him.  If  the  son  was  to  obtain  an  education, 
it  must  be  somehow  through  his  own  efforts,  and 
without  any  expense  to  his  parents. 

The  prior  thereupon  obtained  for  young  Haiiy 
a  position  as  a  member  of  a  church  choir  in 
Paris ;  and,  later,  some  of  those  to  whom  he  had 
recommended  the  boy  secured  for  him  a  place  in 
the  college  of  Navarre.  Here,  during  the  course 
of  a  few  years,  he  made  such  an  impression  upon 
the  members  of  the  faculty  that  they  asked  him 
to  become  one  of  the  teaching  corps  of  the  insti- 
tution.    It  was  a  very  modest  position  that  he 


ABBE  HAUY  :  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     1 75 

held,  and  his  salary  scarcely  more  than  paid  for 
his  board  and  clothes  and  a  few  books.  Haiiy 
was  well  satisfied,  however,  because  his  position 
provided  him  with  opportunities  for  pursuing 
the  studies  for  which  he  cared  most.  At  this 
time  he  was  interested  mainly  in  literature,  and 
succeeded  in  learning  several  languages,  which 
were  to  be  of  considerable  use  to  him  later  on  in 
his  scientific  career. 

After  some  years  spent  in  the  college  of 
Navarre  he  was  ordained  priest,  and  not  long 
afterward  became  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the 
college  of  Cardinal  Lemoine.  Here  his  position 
was  somewhat  better,  and  he  was  brought  in  con- 
tact with  many  of  the  prominent  scholars  of 
Paris.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  been  quite 
contented  in  his  rather  narrow  circle  of  interests, 
and  was  not  specially  anxious  to  advance  him- 
self. It  is  rather  curious  to  realize  that  a  man 
who  was  later  to  spend  all  his  time  in  the  pur- 
suit of  the  physical  sciences,  knew  practically 
nothing  at  all  about  them,  and  certainly  had  no 
special  interest  in  any  particular  branch  of 
science,  until  he  reached  the  age  of  almost  thirty 
years. 

Even  then  his  first  introduction  to  serious 
science  did  not  come  because  of  any  special  in- 
terest that  had  been  aroused  in  his  own  mind, 
but  entirely  because  of  his  friendship  for  a  dis- 
tinguished old  fellow-professor,  whose  walks  he 
used  to  share,  and  who  was  deeply  interested  in 
botany.     This  was  the  Abbe  Lhomond,  a  very 


I76        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 


well-known  scholar,  to  whom  we  owe  a  number 
of  classic  text-books  arranged  especially  for 
young  folk. 

The  Abbe's  recreation  consisted  in  botanizing 
expeditions;  and  Haiiy,  who  had  chosen  the 
kindly  old  priest  as  his  spiritual  director,  was  his 
most  frequent  companion.  Occasionally,  when 
M.  Lhomond  was  ailing,  and  unable  to  take  his 
usual  walks,  Haiiy  spent  the  time  with  him.  He 
rather  regretted  the  fact  that  he  did  not  know 
enough  about  botany  to  be  able  to  make  collec- 
tions of  certain  plants  to  bring  to  the  professor 
at  such  times,  in  order  that  the  latter  might  not 
entirely  miss  his  favorite  recreation.  Accord- 
ingly, one  summer  when  he  was  on  his  vacation 
at  his  country  home,  he  asked  one  of  the  Pre- 
monstratensian  monks,  who  was  very  much  in- 
terested in  botany,  to  teach  him  the  principles  of 
the  science,  so  as  to  enable  him  to  recognize  vari- 
ous plants.  Of  course  his  request  was  granted. 
He  expected  to  have  a  pleasant  surprise  for  Abbe 
Lhomond  on  his  return,  and  to  draw  even  closer 
in  his  friendly  relations  with  him,  because  of 
their  mutual  interest  in  what  the  old  Abbe  called 
his  scientia  amabilis  (lovely  science).  His  little 
plan  worked  to  perfection,  and  there  was  won 
for  the  study  of  physical  science  a  new  recruit, 
who  was  to  do  as  much  as  probably  any  one  of 
his  generation  to  extend  scientific  knowledge  in 
one  department,  though  that  department  was 
rather  distant  from  botany. 

Haiiy's   interest  in   botany,   however,   was   to 


abbe  hauy:  father  of  crystallography    177 


prove  only  temporary.  It  brought  him  in  con- 
tact with  other  departments  of  natural  history, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  he  found  that  his 
favorite  study  was  that  of  minerals,  and  especially 
of  the  various  forms  of  crystals.  So  absorbed 
did  he  become  in  this  subject  that  nothing 
pleased  him  better  than  the  opportunity  to  spend 
long  days  in  the  investigation  of  the  comparative 
size  and  shape  of  the  crystals  in  the  museum  at 
Paris.  A  friend  has  said  of  him  that,  whether 
they  were  the  most  precious  stones  and  gems  or 
the  most  worthless  specimens  of  ordinary  min- 
erals, it  was  always  only  their  crystalline  shape 
that  interested  Hauy.  Diamonds  he  studied,  but 
only  in  order  to  determine  their  angles ;  and  ap- 
parently they  had  no  more  attraction  for  him 
than  any  other  well-defined  crystal — much  less, 
indeed,  than  some  of  the  more  complex  crystal- 
line varieties,  which  attracted  his  interest  be- 
cause of  the  difficulty  of  the  problems  they  pre- 
sented. 

Like  many  another  advance  in  science,  Haiiy's 
first  great  original  step  in  crystallography  was 
the  result  of  what  would  be  called  a  lucky  acci- 
dent. These-  accidents,  however,  be  it  noted, 
happen  only  to  geniuses  who  are  capable  of  tak- 
ing advantage  of  them.  How  many  a  man  had 
seen  an  apple  fall  from  a  tree  before  this  little 
circumstance  gave  Newton  the  hint  from  which 
grew,  eventually,  the  laws  of  gravity!  Many  a 
man,  doubtless,  had  seen  little  boys  tapping  on 
logs  of  wood,  to  hear  how  well  sound  was  car- 


I78         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

ried  through  a  solid  body,  without  getting  from 
this  any  hint,  such  as  Laennec  derived  from  it, 
for  the  invention  of  the  stethoscope.  So,  too, 
many  a  person  before  Hauy's  time  had  seen  a 
crystal  fall  and  break,  leaving  a  smooth  surface, 
without  deriving  any  hint  for  the  explanation  of 
the  origin  of  crystals. 

According  to  the  familiar  story,  Hauy  was 
one  day  looking  over  a  collection  of  very  fine 
crystals  in  the  house  of  Citizen  Du  Croisset, 
Treasurer  of  France.  He  was  examining  an 
especially  fine  specimen  of  calcspar,  when  it  fell 
from  his  hands  and  was  broken.  Of  course  the 
visitor  was  much  disturbed  by  this  accident.  His 
friend,  however,  in  order  to  show  him  that  he 
was  not  at  all  put  out  at  the  breaking  of  the 
crystal,  insisted  on  Hauy's  taking  it  with  him  for 
purposes  of  study,  as  they  had  both  been  very 
much  interested  in  the  perfectly  smooth  plane  of 
the  fracture.  As  Hauy  himself  says,  this  broken 
portion  had  a  peculiarly  brilliant  lustre,  "  pol- 
ished, as  it  were  by  nature,"  as  beautifully  as  the 
outer  portions  of  the  crystal;  thus  demonstrat- 
ing that  in  building  up  of  so  large  a  crystal  there 
must  have  been  certain  steps  of  progress,  at  any 
of  which,  were  the  formation  arrested,  smooth 
surfaces  would  be  found. 

On  taking  the  crystal  home,  Hauy  proceeded 
further  to  break  up  the  smaller  fragment;  and 
he  soon  found  that  he  could  remove  slice  after 
slice  of  it,  until  there  was  no  trace  of  the  orig- 
inal prism,  but  in  place  of  it  a  rhomboid,  per- 


abbe  hauy:  father  of  crystallography    179 

fectly  similar  to  Iceland  spar,  and  lying  in  the 
middle  of  what  was  the  original  prism.  This 
fact  seemed  to  him  very  important.  From  it  he 
began  the  development  of  a  theory  of  crystalliza- 
tion, using  this  observation  as  the  key.  Before 
this  time  it  had  been  hard  for  students  of  min- 
eralogy to  understand  how  it  was  that  substances 
of  the  same  composition  might  yet  have  what 
seemed  to  be  different  crystalline  forms.  Calc- 
spar,  for  instance,  might  be  found  crystallized  in 
forms,  apparently,  quite  at  variance  with  one  an- 
other. 

By  his  studies,  however,  Hauy  was  able  to  de- 
termine that  whenever  substances  of  the  same 
composition  crystallized,  even  though  the  exter- 
nal form  of  the  crystals  seemed  to  be  different, 
all  of  them  were  found  to  have  the  same  internal 
nucleus.  Whenever  the  mineral  under  observa- 
tion was  chemically  different  from  another,  then 
the  nucleus  also  had  a  distinctive  character;  and 
so  there  came  the  law  that  all  substances  of  the 
same  kind  crystallized  in  the  same  way,  notwith- 
standing apparent  differences.  Indeed,  one  of 
the  first  results  of  this  law  was  the  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  when  the  crystalline  forms  of 
two  minerals  were  essentially  different,  then,  no 
matter  how  similar  they  might  be,  there  was  sure 
to  be  some  chemical  difference.  This  enabled 
Hauy  to  make  certain  prophecies  with  regard  to 
the  composition  of  minerals. 

A  number  of  different  kinds  of  crystals  had 
been  classed  together  under  the  name  of  heavy- 


l80         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

spar.  Some  of  these  could  not,  by  the  splitting 
process,  be  made  to  produce  nuclei  of  similar 
forms,  and  the  angles  of  the  crystals  were  quite 
different.  Haiiy  insisted  that,  in  spite  of  close 
resemblances,  there  was  an  essential  distinction 
in  the  chemical  composition  of  these  two  differ- 
ent crystalline  formations ;  and  before  long  care- 
ful investigation  showed  that,  while  many  of  the 
specimens  called  heavyspar  contain  barium,  some 
of  them  contain  a  new  substance — strontium — 
which  had  been  very  little  studied  heretofore. 
This  principle  did  not  prove  to  be  absolute  in  its 
application;  but  the  amount  of  truth  in  it  at- 
tracted attention  to  the  subject  of  crystallog- 
raphy because  of  the  help  which  that  science 
would  afford  in  the  easy  recognition  of  the  gen- 
eral chemical  composition  of  mineral  substances. 
The  most  important  part  of  Haiiy's  work  was 
the  annunciation  of  the  law  of  symmetry.  He 
emphasized  the  fact  that  the  forms  of  crystals  are 
not  irregular  or  capricious,  but  are  very  constant 
and  definite,  and  founded  on  absolutely  fixed  and 
ascertainable  laws.  He  even  showed  that,  while 
from  certain  crystalline  nuclei  sundry  secondary 
forms  may  be  derived,  there  are  other  forms  that 
cannot  by  any  possibility  occur.  Any  change  of 
crystalline  form  noticed  in  his  experiments  led  to 
a  corresponding  change  along  all  similar  parts  of 
the  crystal.  The  angles,  the  edges,  the"  faces, 
were  modified  in  the  same  way,  at  the  same  time. 
All  these  elements  of  mensuration  within  the 
crystal  Haiiy  thought  could  be  indicated  by- 
rational  coefficients. 


abbe  hauy:  father  of  crystallography    181 

Crystallography,  however,  did  not  absorb  all 
Haiiy's  attention.  He  further  demonstrated  his 
intellectual  power  by  following  out  other  import- 
ant lines  of  investigation  that  had  been  suggested 
by  his  study  of  crystals.  It  is  to  him  more  than 
to  any  other,  for  instance,  that  is  due  the  first 
steps  in  our  knowledge  of  pyro-(or  thermo-) elec- 
tricity. Mr.  George  Chrystal,  professor  of  math- 
ematics at  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  in  the 
article  on  electricity  written  for  the  ninth  edi- 
tion of  the  Encyclopedia,  says  it  was  reserved 
for  the  Abbe  Hauy  in  his  Treatise  on  Mineralogy 
to  throw  a  clear  light  on  this  curious  branch  of 
the  science  of  electricity. 

To  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  history  of 
the  development  of  this  science  it  will  be  no  sur- 
prise to  find  a  clergyman  playing  a  prominent 
role  in  its  development.  During  the  days  of  the 
beginning  of  electricity  many  ecclesiastics  seem 
to  have  been  particularly  interested  in  the  curious 
ways  of  electrical  phenomena,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence they  are  the  original  discoverers  of  some 
of  the  most  important  early  advances.  Not  long 
before  this,  Professor  Gordon,  a  Scotch  Benedic- 
tine monk  who  was  teaching  at  the  University 
of  Erfurt,  constructed  the  first  practical  electrical 
machine.  Kleist,  who  is  one  of  the  three  men  to 
whom  is  attributed  the  discovery  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  storing  and  concentrating  electricity,  and 
who  invented  the  Leyden  Jar,  which  was  named 
after  the  town  where  it  was  first  manufactured, 
was  also  a  member  of  a  Religious  Order.     As 


l82         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

we  have  already  stated,  Dirwisch,  the  Premon- 
stratensian  monk,  set  up  a  lightning-conductor 
by  which  he  obtained  sparks  from  the  clouds  even 
before  our  own  Franklin. 

Abbe  Haiiy  was  only  following  a  very  com- 
mon precedent,  then,  when  he  succeeded  by  his 
original  research  in  setting  the  science  of  pyro- 
electricity  firmly  on  its  feet.  It  is  true,  others 
before  him  had  noted  that  substances  like  tour- 
maline possessed  electrical  properties.  There  is 
even  some  good  reason  for  thinking  that  the 
lyncurium  of  the  ancients  which,  according  to 
certain  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  especially  The- 
ophrastus,  who  seems  to  have  made  a  close  study 
of  the  subject,  attracted  light  bodies,  was  really 
our  modern  tourmaline.  In  modern  times  the 
Dutch  found  this  mineral  in  Ceylon  and,  because 
it  attracted  ashes  and  other  light  substances  to 
itself,  called  it  aschentriker — that  is,  attractor  of 
ashes.  Others  had  still  further  experimented 
with  this  curious  substance  and  its  interesting 
electrical  phenomena.  It  remained  for  Abbe 
Haiiy,  however,  to  demonstrate  the  scientific 
properties  of  tourmaline  and  the  relations  which 
its  electrical  phenomena  bore  toward  the  crystal- 
line structure  of  the  mineral.  He  showed  that 
the  electricity  of  tourmaline  decreases  rapidly 
from  the  summits  or  poles  toward  the  middle  of 
the  crystal.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  at  the  middle 
of  the  crystal  its  electrical  power  becomes  im- 
perceptible. 

He  showed  also  that  each  particle  of  a  crystal 


ABBE  HAUY  :  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     1 83 

that  exhibits  pyro-electricity  is  itself  a  source  of 
the  same  sort  of  electricity  and  exhibits  polarity. 
His  experimental  observations  served  to  prove 
also  that  the  pyro-electric  state  has  an  important 
connexion  with  the  want  of  symmetry  in  the 
crystals  of  the  substances  that  exhibit  this  curi- 
ous property.  In  tourmaline,  for  instance,  he 
found  the  vitreous  charge  always  at  the  summit 
of  the  crystal  which  had  six  faces,  and  the  resin- 
ous electricity  at  the  summit  of  the  crystal  with 
three  faces. 

His  experiments  soon  showed  him,  too,  that 
there  were  a  number  of  other  substances,  besides 
tourmaline,  which  possessed  this  same  electrical 
property  when  subjected  to  heat  in  the  crystalline 
stage.  Among  these  were  the  Siberian  and 
Brazilian  topaz,  borate  of  magnesia,  mesotype, 
sphene,  and  calamine.  In  all  of  these  other  pyro- 
electrical  crystals,  Haiiy  detected  a  corresponding 
deviation  from  the  rules  of  symmetry  in  their 
secondary  crystals  to  that  which  occurs  in  tour- 
maline. In  a  word,  after  he  had  concluded  his 
experiments  and  observations  there  was  very  little 
left  for  others  to  add  to  this  branch  of  science, 
although  such  distinguished  men  as  Sir  David 
Brewster  in  England  were  among  his  successors 
in  the  study  of  the  peculiar  phenomena  of  pyro- 
electricity. 

It  may  naturally  enough  be  thought  that,  born 
in  the  country,  of  poor  parents,  and  compelled  to 
work  for  his  living,  Haiiy  would  at  least  have  the 
advantage  of  rugged  health  to  help  him  in  his 


184         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

career.  He  had  been  a  delicate  child,  however; 
and  his  physical  condition  never  improved  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  inure  him  to  hardships  of 
any  kind.  One  of  his  biographers  has  gone  so 
far  as  to  say  that  his  life  was  one  long  malady. 
The  only  distraction  from  his  almost  constant 
suffering  was  his  studies.  Yet  this  man  lived  to 
be  nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  and  accomplished 
an  amount  of  work  that  might  well  be  envied 
even  by  the  hardiest. 

In  the  midst  of  his  magnificent  success  as  a 
scientist,  Haiiy  was  faithful  to  all  his  obligations 
as  a  priest.  His  name  was  known  throughout 
Europe,  and  many  of  the  scientific  societies  had 
considered  that  they  were  honoring  themselves 
by  conferring  titles,  or  degrees,  upon  him;  but 
he  continued  to  be  the  humble,  simple  student 
that  he  had  always  been. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  Abbe  Haiiy 
was  among  the  priests  who  refused  the  oath 
which  the  Republican  government  insisted  on 
their  taking,  and  which  so  many  of  them  consid- 
ered derogatory  to  their  duty  as  churchmen. 
Those  who  refused  were  thrown  into  prison, 
Haiiy  among  them.  He  did  not  seem  to  mind 
his  incarceration  much,  but  he  was  not  a  little 
perturbed  by  the  fact  that  the  officers  who  made 
the  arrest  insisted  on  taking  his  precious  papers, 
and  that  his  crystals  were  all  tossed  aside  and 
many  of  them  broken.  For  some  time  he  was 
kept  in  confinement  with  a  number  of  other  mem- 
bers of  the   faculty   of   the  University,   mainly 


ABBE  HAUY  I  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     185 

clergymen,  in  the  Seminary  of  St.  Firmin,  which 
had  been  turned  into  a  temporary  jail. 

Hatiy  did  not  allow  his  studies  to  be  entirely 
interrupted  by  his  imprisonment.  He  succeeded 
in  obtaining  permission  to  have  his  cabinets  of 
crystals  brought  to  his  cell,  and  he  continued  his 
investigation  of  them.  It  was  not  long  before 
powerful  friends,  and  especially  his  scientific  col- 
league, Gregory  St.  Hilaire,  interested  them- 
selves in  his  case,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  his 
liberation.  When  the  order  for  his  release  came, 
however,  Hauy  was  engaged  on  a  very  interest- 
ing problem  in  crystallography,  and  he  refused 
to  interrupt  his  work  and  leave  the  prison.  It 
was  only  after  considerable  persuasion  that  he 
consented  to  go  the  next  morning.  It  may  be 
added  that  only  two  weeks  later  many  from  this 
same  prison  were  sent  to  the  guillotine. 

It  is  rather  remarkable  that  the  Revolutionary 
government,  after  his  release,  did  not  disturb  him 
in  any  way.  He  was  so  much  occupied  with  his 
scientific  pursuits  that  he  seems  to  have  been  con- 
sidered absolutely  incapable  of  antagonizing  the 
government ;  and,  as  he  had  no  enemies,  he  was 
not  denounced  to  the  Convention.  This  was  for- 
tunate, because  it  enabled  him  to  pursue  his 
studies  in  peace.  There  was  many  another  mem- 
ber of  the  faculty  of  the  University  who  had  not 
the  same  good  fortune.  Lavoisier  was  thrown 
into  prison,  and,  in  spite  of  all  the  influence  that 
could  be  brought  to  bear,  the  great  discoverer  of 
oxygen  met  his  death  by  the  guillotine.     At  least 


l86         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

two  others  of  the  professors  in  the  physical  de- 
partment, Borda  and  De  Lambre,  were  dis- 
missed from  their  posts.  Haiiy,  though  himself 
a  priest  who  had  refused  to  take  the  oath,  and 
though  he  continued  to  exercise  his  religious 
functions,  did  not  hesitate  to  formulate  petitions 
for  his  imprisoned  scientific  friends ;  yet,  because 
of  his  well-known  gentleness  of  character,  this 
did  not  result  in  arousing  the  enmity  of  any  mem- 
bers of  the  government,  or  attracting  such  odious 
attention  as  might  have  made  his  religious  and 
scientific  work  extremely  difficult  or  even  pre- 
vented it  entirely. 

Notwithstanding  the  stormy  times  of  the 
French  Revolution  and  the  stirring  events  going 
on  all  round  him  in  Paris,  Haiiy  continued  to 
study  his  crystals  in  order  to  complete  his  obser- 
vations ;  and  then  he  embodied  his  investigations 
and  his  theories  in  his  famous  "Treatise  on  Crys- 
tallography." This  attracted  attention  not  only 
on  account  of  the  evident  novelty  of  the  subject, 
but  more  especially  because  of  the  very  thorough 
method  with  which  Haiiy  had  accomplished  his 
work.  His  style,  says  the  historian  of  crystal- 
lography, was  "  perspicuous  and  elegant.  The 
volume  itself  was  noteworthy  for  its  clear  ar- 
rangement and  full  illustration  by  figures."  In 
spite  of  its  deficiencies,  then — deficiencies  which 
must  exist  in  any  ground-breaking  work — this 
monograph  has  had  an  enduring  influence. 
Some  of  the  most  serious  flaws  in  his  theory  were 
soon  brought  to  light  because  of  the  very  stimulus 
afforded  by  his  investigations. 


ABBE  HAUY  I  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     1 87 

As  to  the  real  value  of  his  treatise,  perhaps  no 
better  estimate  can  be  formed  than  that  given  by 
Cuvier  in  his  collection  of  historical  eulogies 
(Vol.  Ill,  p.  155)  :  "  In  possession  of  a  large 
collection,  to  which  there  flowed  from  all  sides 
the  most  varied  minerals,  arranged  with  the 
assistance  of  young,  enthusiastic,  and  progressive 
students,  it  was  not  long  before  there  was  given 
back  to  Haiiy  the  time  which  he  had  apparently 
wasted  over  other  things.  In  a  few  years  he 
raised  up  a  wondrous  monument,  which  brought 
as  much  glory  to  France  as  it  did  somewhat  later 
to  himself.  After  centuries  of  neglect,  his  coun- 
try at  one  bound  found  itself  in  the  first  rank  in 
this  department  of  natural  science.  In  Haiiy's 
book  are  united  in  the  highest  degree  two  quali- 
ties which  are  seldom  associated.  One  of  these 
is  that  it  was  founded  on  an  original  discovery 
which  had  sprung  entirely  from  the  genius  of  its 
author;  and  the  other  is  that  this  discovery  is 
pursued  and  developed  with  almost  unheard-of 
persistence  down  even  to  the  least  important  min- 
eral variety.  Everything  in  the  work  is  great, 
both  as  regards  conception  and  detail,  It  is  as 
complete  as  the  theory  it  announces." 

It  was  not  surprising,  then,  that,  after  the  death 
of  Professor  Dolomieu,  Haiiy  should  be  raised  to 
the  chair  of  mineralogy  and  made  director  of 
that  department  in  the  Paris  Museum  of  Natural 
History.  Here  he  was  to  have  new  triumphs. 
We  have  already  said  that  his  book  was  noted 
for  the  elegance  of  its  style  and  its  perspicuity. 


l88         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

As  the  result  of  this  absolute  clearness  of  ideas, 
and  completeness  and  simplicity  of  expression, 
Hauy  attracted  to  him  a  large  number  -of  pupils. 
Moreover,  all  those  interested  in  the  science, 
when  they  came  in  contact  with  him,  were  so 
charmed  by  his  grace  and  simplicity  of  manner 
that  they  were  very  glad  to  attend  his  lectures 
and  to  be  considered  as  his  personal  friends. 
Among  his  listeners  were  often  such  men  as  La 
Place,  Berthollet,  Fourcroy,  Lagrange  and  La- 
voisier. 

It  was  not  long  before  honors  of  all  kinds,  de- 
grees from  universities  and  memberships  in  scien- 
tific societies  all  over  Europe,  began  to  be  heaped 
upon  Hauy.  They  did  not,  however,  cause  any 
change  in  the  manners  or  mode  of  life  of  the 
simple  professor  of  old  times.  Every  day  he 
continued  to  take  his  little  walks  through  the 
city,  and  was  very  glad  to  have  opportunity  to 
be  of  assistance  to  others.  He  showed  strangers 
the  way  to  points  of  interest  for  which  they  in- 
quired, whenever  it  was  necessary,  obtained  en- 
trance cards  for  them  to  the  collection ;  and  not 
a  few  of  those  who  were  thus  enabled  to  take 
advantage  of  his  kindness  failed  to  realize  who 
the  distinguished  man  was  to  whom  they  owed 
their  opportunities.  His  old-fashioned  clothing 
still  continued  to  be  quite  good  enough  for  him, 
and  his  modest  demeanor  and  simple  speech  did 
not  betray  in  any  way  the  distinguished  scientist 
he  had  become. 

Some  idea  of  the  consideration  in  which  the 


ABBE  HAUY  I  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     1 89 

Abbe  Haiiy  was  held  by  his  contemporaries  may 
be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  several  of  the 
reigning  monarchs  of  Europe,  as  well  as  the  heirs 
apparent  to  many  thrones,  came  at  some  time  or 
other  to  visit  him,  to  see  his  collection,  and  to 
hear  the  kindly  old  man  talk  on  his  hobby. 
There  was  only  one  other  scientist  in  the  nine- 
teenth century — and  that  was  Pasteur,  toward 
the  end  of  it — who  attracted  as  much  attention 
from  royalty.  Among  Haiiy' s  visitors  were  the 
King  of  Prussia,  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  the 
Archduke  John,  as  well  as  the  Emperor  of  Russia 
and  his  two  brothers,  Nicholas  and  Michael,  the 
first  of  whom  succeeded  his  elder  brother,  Alex- 
ander, to  the  throne,  and  half  a  century  later 
was  ruling  Russia  during  the  Crimean  War. 
The  Prince  Royal  of  Denmark  spent  a  portion  of 
each  year  for  several  years  with  Haiiy,  being  one 
of  his  intimates,  who  was  admitted  to  his  room 
while  he  was  confined  to  his  bed,  and  who  was 
permitted  to  share  his  personal  investigations 
and  scientific  studies. 

His  most  striking  characteristic  was  his  suav- 
ity toward  all.  The  humblest  of  his  students 
was  as  sure  to  receive  a  kindly  reception  from 
him,  and  to  have  his  difficulties  solved  with  as 
much  patience  as  the  most  distinguished  profes- 
sor in  this  department.  It  was  said  that  he  had 
students  of  all  classes.  The  attendants  at  the 
normal  school  were  invited  to  visit  him  at  his 
house,  and  he  permitted  them  to  learn  all  his 
secrets.     When  they  came  to  him  for  a  whole 


190        CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

day,  he  insisted  on  taking  part  in  their  games, 
and  allowed  them  to  go  home  only  after  they  had 
taken  supper  with  him.  All  of  them  looked  upon 
him  as  a  personal  friend,  and  some  of  them  were 
more  confidential  with  him  than  with  their  near- 
est relatives.  Many  a  young  man  in  Paris  dur- 
ing the  troublous  times  of  the  Revolutionary 
period  found  in  the  good  Abbe  Hauy  not  only 
a  kind  friend,  but  a  wise  director  and  another 
father. 

It  is  said  that  one  day,  when  taking  his  usual 
walk,  he  came  upon  two  former  soldiers  who 
were  just  preparing  to  fight  a  duel  and  were  on 
their  way  to  the  dueling  ground.  He  succeeded 
in  getting  them  to  tell  him  the  cause  of  their 
quarrel,  and  after  a  time  tempted  them  to  come 
with  him  into  what  I  fear  we  should  call  at  the 
present  day  a  saloon.  Here,  over  a  glass  of 
wine,  he  finally  persuaded  them  to  make  peace 
and  seal  it  effectually.  It  is  hard  to  reconcile 
this  absolute  simplicity  of  character  and  kindness 
of  heart  with  what  is  sometimes  assumed  to  be 
the  typical,  distant,  abstracted,  self-centered  ways 
of  the  great  scientist. 

Few  men  have  had  so  many  proofs  of  the  lofty 
appreciation  of  great  contemporaries.  Many  in- 
cidents serve  to  show  how  much  Napoleon 
thought  of  the  distinguished  scholar  who  had 
created  a  new  department  of  science  and  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  world  to  his  splendid  work 
at  Paris.  Not  long  after  he  became  emperor, 
Napoleon  named  him  Honorary  Canon  of  the 


ABBE  HAUY  I  FATHER  OF  CRYSTALLOGRAPHY     191 

Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame ;  and  when  he  founded 
the  Legion  of  Honor,  he  made  the  Abbe  one  of 
the  original  members.  Shortly  after  these  dig- 
nities had  been  conferred  upon  him,  it  happened 
that  the  Abbe  fell  ill ;  and  Napoleon,  having  sent 
his  own  physician  to  him,  went  personally  to  call 
on  him  in  his  humble  quarters,  saying  to  the 
physician :  "  Remember  that  you  must  cure  Abbe 
Hauy,  and  restore  him  to  us  as  one  of  the  glories 
of  our  reign."  After  Napoleon's  return  from 
Elba,  he  told  the  Abbe  that  the  latter's  "Treatise 
on  Crystallography  "  was  one  of  the  books  that 
he  had  specially  selected  to  take  with  him  to 
Elba,  to  while  away  the  leisure  that  he  thought 
he  would  have  for  many  years.  Abbe  Haiiy's 
independence  of  spirit,  and  his  unselfish  devotion 
to  his  native  country,  may  be  best  appreciated 
from  the  tradition  that  after  the  return  from 
Elba,  when  there  was  a  popular  vote  for  the  con- 
firmation of  Napoleon's  second  usurpation,  the 
old  scientist  voted,  No. 

In  spite  of  his  constant  labor  at  his  investiga- 
tions, his  uniformly  regular  life  enabled  him  to 
maintain  his  health,  and  he  lived  to  the  ripe  age 
of  over  seventy-nine.  Toward  the  end  of  his 
career,  he  did  not  obtain  the  recognition  that  his 
labors  deserved.  After  the  Restoration,  he  was 
not  in  favor  with  the  new  authorities  in  France, 
and  he  accordingly  lost  his  position  as  professor 
at  the  University.  The  absolute  simplicity  of 
life  that  he  had  always  maintained  now  stood 
him    in   good    stead;    and,    notwithstanding   the 


192         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

smallness  of  his  income,  he  did  not  have  to  make 
any  change  in  his  ordinary  routine.  Unfortu- 
nately, an  accidental  fall  in  his  room  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  eightieth  year  confined  him  to  his 
bed ;  and  then  his  health  began  to  fail  very  seri- 
ously.    He  died  on  the  3  June,  1822. 

He  had  shown  during  his  illness  the  same  gen- 
tleness and  humility,  and  even  enthusiasm  for 
study  whenever  it  was  possible,  that  had  always 
characterized  him.  While  he  was  confined  to  his 
bed  he  divided  his  time  between  prayer,  attention 
to  the  new  edition  of  his  works  which  was  about 
to  appear,  and  his  interest  for  the  future  of  those 
students  who  had  helped  him  in  his  investiga- 
tions. Cuvier  says  of  him  that  "  he  was  as 
faithful  to  his  religious  duties  as  he  was  in  the 
pursuit  of  his  studies.  The  profoundest  specu- 
lations with  regard  to  weighty  matters  of  science 
had  not  kept  him  from  the  least  important  duty 
which  ecclesiastical  regulations  might  require  of 
him."  There  is,  perhaps,  no  life  in  all  the  his- 
tory of  science  which  shows  so  clearly  how  abso- 
lutely untrue  is  the  declaration  so  often  made, 
that  there  is  essential  opposition  between  the  in- 
tellectual disposition  of  the  inquiring  scientist 
and  those  other  mental  qualities  which  are  neces- 
sary to  enable  the  Christian  to  bow  humbly  be- 
fore the  mysteries  of  religion,  acknowledge  all 
that  is  beyond  understanding  in  what  has  been 
revealed,  and  observe  faithfully  all  the  duties  that 
flow  from  such  belief. 


VIII. 

ABBOT  MENDEL:  A  NEW  OUT- 
LOOK IN  HEREDITY. 


THERE  is  grandeur  in  this  view 
of  life,  with  its  several  powers 
having  been  originally  breathed  by 
the  Creator  into  a  few  forms  or  into 
one;  and  that,  while  this  planet  has 
gone  circling  on  according  to  the 
fixed  law  of  gravity  from  so  simple  a 
beginning,  endless  forms,  most  beau- 
tiful and  most  wonderful,  have  been 
and  are  being  evolved. — Closing  sen- 
tence of  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species. 


GREGOR   MENDEL 


VIII. 

ABBOT  MENDEL,1:    A  NEW,  OUTLOOK  IN 
HEREDITY. 

SCIENTIFIC  progress  does  not  run  in  cycles 
of  centuries,  and  as  a  rule  it  bears  no  re- 
lationship to  the  conventional  arrangement  of 
years.  As  has  been  well  said — for  science  a  new 
century  begins  every  second.  There  are  inter- 
esting coincidences,  however,  of  epoch-making 
discoveries  in  science  corresponding  with  the  be- 
ginning of  definite  eras  in  time  that  are  at  least 
impressive  from  a  mnemonic  standpoint,  if  from 
no  other. 

The  very  eve  of  the  nineteenth  century  saw  the 
first  definite  formulation  of  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion. Lamarck,  the  distinguished  French  biolo- 
gist, stated  a  theory  of  development  in  nature 
which,  although  it  attracted  very  little  attention 


1  The  portrait  of  Abbot  Mendel  which  precedes  this 
sketch  was  kindly  furnished  by  the  Vicar  of  the 
Augustinian  Monastery  of  Briinn.  It  represents  him 
holding  a  fuchsia,  his  favorite  flower,  and  was  taken 
in  1867,  just  as  he  was  completing  the  researches 
which  were  a  generation  later  to  make  his  name  so 
famous.  The  portrait  has  for  this  reason  a  very  special 
interest  as  a  human  document.  We  may  add  that  the 
sketch  of  Abbot  Mendel  which  appears  here  was  read 
t)y  the  Very  Rev.  Klemens  Janetschek,  the  Vicar  of  the 
Monastery,  who  suggested  one  slight  change  in  it,  so 
that  it  may  be  said  to  have  had  the  revision  of  one 
who  knew  him  and  his  environment  very  well. 

195 


I96         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

for  many  years  after  its  publication,  has  come  in 
our  day  to  be  recognized  as  the  most  suggestive 
advance  in  biology  in  modern  times. 

As  we  begin  the  twentieth  century,  the  most 
interesting  question  in  biology  is  undoubtedly 
that  of  heredity.  Just  at  the  dawn  of  the  cen- 
tury three  distinguished  scientists,  working  in 
different  countries,  rediscovered  a  law  with  re- 
gard to  heredity  which  promises  to  be  even  more 
important  for  the  science  of  biology  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  than  was  Lamarck's  work  for  the 
nineteenth  century.  This  law,  which,  it  is 
thought,  will  do  more  to  simplify  the  problems 
of  heredity  than  all  the  observations  and  theories 
of  nineteenth-century  workers,  and  which  has 
already  done  much  more  to  point  out  the  methods 
by  which  observation,  and  the  lines  along  which 
experimentation  shall  be  best  directed  so  as  to 
replace  elaborate  but  untrustworthy  scientific  the- 
orizing by  definite  knowledge,  was  discovered  by 
a  member  of  a  small  religious  community  in  the 
little-known  town  of  Briinn,  in  Austria,  some 
thirty-five  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent century. 

Considering  how  generally,  in  English-speak- 
ing countries  at  least,  it  is  supposed  that  the 
training  of  a  clergyman  and  particularly  that  of 
a  religious  unfits  him  for  any  such  initiative  in 
science,  Father  Mendel's  discovery  comes  with  all 
the  more  emphatic  surprise.  There  is  no  doubt, 
however,  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the  most  prom- 
inent present-day  workers  in  biology  that  his  dis- 


ABBOT  MENDEL  '.  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY    I97 

coveries  are  of  a  ground-breaking  character  that 
will  furnish  substantial  foundation  for  a  new  de- 
velopment of  scientific  knowledge  with  regard  to 
heredity. 

Lest  it  should  be  thought  that  perhaps  there  is 
a  tendency  to  make  Father  Mendel's  discovery 
appear  more  important  here  than  it  really  is,  be- 
cause of  his  station  in  life,  it  seems  desirable  to 
quote  some  recent  authoritative  expressions  of 
opinion  with  regard  to  the  value  of  his  observa- 
tions and  the  importance  of  the  law  he  enun- 
ciated, as  well  as  the  principle  which  he  consid- 
ered to  be  the  explanation  of  that  law. 

In  the  February  number  of  Harper's 
Monthly  for  1903,  Professor  Thomas  Hunt 
Morgan,  Professor  of  Biology  at  Bryn  Mawr, 
and  one  of  the  best  known  of  our  American  biol- 
ogists, whose  recent  work  on  "  Regeneration " 
has  attracted  favorable  notice  all  over  the  world, 
calls  attention  to  the  revolutionary  character  of 
Mendel's  discovery.  He  considers  that  recent 
demonstrations  of  the  mathematical  truth  of 
Mendel's  Law  absolutely  confirm  Mendel's  orig- 
inal observations,  and  the  movement  thus  in- 
itiated, in  Professor  Morgan's  eyes,  gives  the 
final  coup  de  grace  to  the  theory  of  natural  selec- 
tion. "  If,"  he  says,  "  we  reject  Darwin's  theory 
of  natural  selection  as  an  explanation  of  evolu- 
tion, we  have  at  least  a  new  and  promising  out- 
look in  another  direction  and  are  in  a  position  to 
answer  the  oft-heard  but  unscientific  query  of 
those  who  must  cling  to  some  dogma :  if  you  re- 
ject  Darwin,  what  better  have  you  to  offer?" 


I98         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

Professor  Edmund  B.  Wilson,  the  Director  of 
the  Zoological  Laboratory  of  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, called  attention  in  Science  (19  December, 
1902)  to  the  fact  that  studies  in  cytology, 
that  is  to  say,  observations  on  the  formation,  de- 
velopment, and  maturation  of  cells,  confirm  Men- 
del's principles  of  inheritance  and  thus  furnish 
another  proof  of  the  truth  of  these  principles. 

Two  students  working  in  Professor  Wilson's 
laboratory  have  obtained  definite  evidence  in 
favor  of  the  cytological  explanation  of  Mendel's 
principles,  and  have  thus  made  an  important  step 
in  the  solution  of  one  of  the  important  funda- 
mental mysteries  of  cell  development  in  the  very 
early  life  of  organisms. 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences  last  year,  Professor  W.  E. 
Castle,  of  Harvard  University,  said  with  regard 
to  Mendel's  Law  of  Heredity: — 

What  will  doubtless  rank  as  one  of  the  greatest  dis- 
coveries in  the  study  of  biology,  and  in  the  study  of 
heredity,  perhaps  the  greatest,  was  made  by  Gregor 
Mendel,  an  Austrian  monk,  in  the  garden  of  his  clois- 
ter, some  forty  years  ago.  The  discovery  was  an- 
nounced in  the  proceedings  of  a  fairly  well-known 
scientific  society,  but  seems  to  have  attracted  little 
attention,  and  to  have  been  soon  forgotten.  The  Dar- 
winian theory  then  occupied  the  centre  of  the  scientific 
stage,  and  Mendel's  brilliant  discovery  was  all  but 
unnoticed  for  a  third  of  a  century.  Meanwhile,  the 
discussion  aroused  by  Weissman's  germ  plasm  theory, 
in  particular  the  idea  of  the  non-inheritance  of  acquired 
characters,  put  the  scientific  public  into  a  more  re- 
ceptive frame  of  mind.     Mendel's  law  was  rediscovered 


ABBOT  MENDEL :  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY    I99 

independently  by  three  different  botanists,  engaged  in 
the  study  of  plant  hybrids — de  Vries,  Correns,  and 
Tschermak,  in  the  year  1900.  It  remained,  however, 
for  a  zoologist,  Bateson,  two  years  later,  to  point  out 
the  full  importance  and  the  wide  applicability  of  the 
law.  Since  then  the  Mendelian  discoveries  have  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  biologists  generally.1 

Professor  Bateson,  whose  book  on  Mendel's 
"  Principles  of  Heredity "  is  the  best  popular 
exposition  in  English  of  Mendel's  work,  says 
that  an  exact  determination  of  the  laws  of  hered- 
ity will  probably  produce  more  change  in  man's 
outlook  upon  the  world  and  in  his  power  over 
nature  than  any  other  advance  in  natural  knowl- 
edge that  can  be  clearly  foreseen.  No  one  has 
better  opportunities  of  pursuing  such  work  than 
horticulturists  and  stockbreeders.  They  are  daily 
witnesses  of  the  phenomena  of  heredity.  Their 
success  also  depends  largely  on  a  knowledge  of 
its  laws,  and  obviously  every  increase  in  that 
knowledge  is  of  direct  and  special  importance  to 
them. 

After  thus  insisting  on  the  theoretic  and  prac- 
tical importance  of  the  subject,  Professor  Bate- 
son says : — 

As  regards  the  Mendelian  principles  which  it  is 
the  chief  aim  of  this  introduction  to  present  clearly 
before  the  reader,  it  may  be  said  that  by  the  applica- 


1This  paper  was  originally  published  in  part  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  Vol.  xxxviii,  No.  18,  January,  1903.  It  may 
be  found  complete  in  Science  for  25  September,   1903. 


200         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 


tion  of  those  principles  we  are  enabled  to  reach  and 
deal  in  a  comprehensive  manner  with  phenomena  of  a 
fundamental  nature,  lying  at  the  very  root  of  all  con- 
ceptions not  merely  of  the  physiology  of  reproduction 
and  heredity,  but  even  of  the  essential  nature  of  living 
organisms ;  and  I  think  that  I  use  no  extravagant  words 
when,  in  introducing  Mendel's  work  to  the  notice  of 
the  Royal  Horticultural  Society's  Journal,  I  ventured 
to  declare  that  his  experiments  are  worthy  to  rank 
with  those  which  laid  the  foundation  of  the  atomic 
laws   of   chemistry. 

Professor  L.  H.  Bailey,  who  is  the  Director  of 
the  Horticultural  Department  at  Cornell  Univer- 
sity and  the  editor  of  the  authoritative  Ency- 
clopedia of  Horticulture,  was  one  of  the  first 
of  recent  scientists  to  call  attention  to  Mendel's 
work.  It  was,  we  believe,  because  of  a  reference 
to  Mendel's  papers  by  Bailey  that  Professor  de 
Vries  was  put  on  the  track  of  Mendel's  discov- 
eries and  found  that  the  Austrian  monk  had  com- 
pletely anticipated  the  work  at  which  he  was  then 
engaged.  In  a  recent  issue  of  The  Independ- 
ent, of  New  York,  Professor  Bailey  said: — 

The  teaching  of  Mendel  strikes  at  the  root  of  two 
or  three  difficult  and  vital  problems.  It  presents  a  new 
conception  of  the  proximate  mechanism  of  heredity. 
The  hypothesis  of  heredity  that  it  suggests  will  focus 
our  attention  along  new  lines,  and  will,  I  believe, 
arouse  as  much  discussion  as  Weissmann's  hypothesis, 
and  it  is  probable  that  it  will  have  a  wider  influence. 
Whether  it  expresses  the  actual  means  of  heredity  or 
not,  it  is  yet  much  too  early  to  say.  But  the  hypothesis 
(which  Father  Mendel  evolved  in  order  to  explain 
the  reasons   for   his   law   as   he   saw   them)    is   even   a 


ABBOT  MENDEL :  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   201 

greater  contribution  to  science  than  the  so-called  Men- 
del's Law  as  to  the  numerical  results  of  hybridization. 
In  the  general  discussion  of  evolution  Mendel's  work 
will  be  of  the  greatest  value  because  it  introduces 
a  new  point  of  view,  challenges  old  ideas  and  opinions, 
gives  us  a  new  theory  for  discussion,  emphasizes  the 
great  importance  of  actual  experiments  for  the  solu- 
tion of  many  questions  of  evolution,  and  then  forces 
the  necessity  for  giving  greater  attention  to  the  real 
characters  and  attributes  of  plants  and  animals  than 
to  the  vague  groups  that  we  are  in  the  habit  of  call- 
ing species. 

It  is  very  evident  that  a  man  of  whose  work 
so  many  authorities  are  agreed  that  it  is  the  be- 
ginning of  a  new  era  in  biology,  and  especially 
in  that  most  interesting  of  all  questions,  heredity, 
must  be  worthy  of  close  acquaintance.  Hence 
the  present  sketch  of  his  career  and  personality, 
as  far  as  they  are  ascertainable,  for  his  modesty, 
and  the  failure  of  the  world  to  recognize  his 
worth  in  his  lifetime,  have  unfortunately  deprived 
us  of  many  details  that  would  have  been  precious. 

Gregor  Johann  Mendel  was  born  27  July, 
1822,  at  Heinzendorf,  nor  far  from  Odrau,  in 
Austrian  Silesia.  He  was  the  son  of  a  well-to- 
do  peasant  farmer,  who  gave  him  every  oppor- 
tunity of  getting  a  good  education  when  he  was 
young.  He  was  educated  at  Olmutz,  in  Moravia, 
and  after  graduating  from  the  college  there,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  entered  as  a  novice 
the  Augustinian  Order,  beginning  his  novitiate 
in  1843  m  the  Augustinian  monastery  Konigen- 
kloster,  in  Altbninn.     He  was  very  successful  in 


202         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

his  theological  studies,  and  in  1846  he  was  or- 
dained priest.  He  seems  to  have  made  a  striking 
success  as  a  teacher,  especially  of  natural  history 
and  physics,  in  the  higher  Realschule  in  Brunn. 
He  attracted  the  attention  of  his  superiors,  who 
were  persuaded  to  give  him  additional  oppor- 
tunities for  the  study  of  the  sciences,  particularly 
of  biological  science,  for  which  he  had  a  distinct 
liking  and  special  talents. 

Accordingly,  in  1851  he  went  to  Vienna  for 
the  purpose  of  doing  post-graduate  work  in  the 
natural  sciences  at  the  university  there.  During 
the  two  years  he  spent  at  this  institution  he 
attracted  attention  by  his  serious  application  to 
study,  but  apparently  without  having  given  any 
special  evidence  of  the  talent  for  original  obser- 
vation that  was  in  him.  In  1853  ne  returned  to 
the  monastery  in  Altbriinn,  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  school  year  became  a  teacher  at  the  Real- 
schule in  Brunn.  He  remained  in  Brunn  for  the 
rest  of  his  life,  dying  at  the  comparatively  early 
age  of  sixty- two,  in  1884.  During  the  last  six- 
teen years  of  his  life  he  held  the  position  of 
abbot  of  the  monastery,  the  duties  of  which  pre- 
vented him  from  applying  himself  as  he  prob- 
ably would  have  desired,  to  the  further  investi- 
gation of  scientific  questions. 

The  experiments  on  which  his  great  discoveries 
were  founded  were  carried  out  in  the  garden  of 
the  monastery  during  the  sixteen  years  from 
1853  to  1868.  How  serious  was  his  scientific  de- 
votion may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  in 


ABBOT  MENDEL  I  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   203 

establishing  the  law  which  now  bears  his  name, 
and  which  was  founded  on  observations  on  peas, 
some  10,000  plants  were  carefully  examined,  their 
various  peculiarities  noted,  their  ancestry  care- 
fully traced,  the  seeds  kept  in  definite  order  and 
entirely  separate,  so  as  to  be  used  for  the  study 
of  certain  qualities  in  their  descendants,  and  the 
whole  scheme  of  experimentation  planned  with 
such  detail  that  for  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  studies  in  heredity,  no  extraneous  and  inex- 
plicable data  were  allowed  to  enter  the  problem. 
Besides  his  work  on  plants,  Mendel  occupied 
himself  with  other  observations  of  a  scientific 
character  on  two  subjects  which  were  at  that 
time  attracting  considerable  attention.  These 
were  the  state  and  condition  of  the  ground-water 
— a  subject  which. was  thought  to  stand  at  the 
basis  of  hygienic  principles  at  the  time  and  which 
had  occupied  the  attention  of  the  distinguished 
Professor  Pettenkof er  and  the  Munich  School  of 
Hygiene  for  many  years — and  weather  observa- 
tions. At  that  time  Pettenkof  er,  the  most  widely 
known  of  sanitary  scientists,  thought  that  he  was 
able  to  show  that  he  curve  of  frequency  of 
typhoid  fever  in  the  different  seasons  of  the  year 
depended  upon  the  closeness  with  which  the 
ground-water  came  to  the  surface.  Authorities 
in  hygiene  generally  do  not  now  accept  this  sup- 
posed law,  for  other  factors  have  been  found 
which  are  so  much  more  important  that,  if  the 
ground-water  has  any  influence,  it  can  be 
neglected.     Mendel's  observations  in  the  matter 


204^       CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

were,  however,  in  line  with  the  scientific  ideas  of 
the  time  and  undoubtedly  must  be  considered  of 
value. 

The  other  subject  in  which  Mendel  interested 
himself  was  meteorology.  He  published  in  the 
journal  of  the  Briinn  Society  of  Naturalists  a 
series  of  statistical  observations  with  regard  to 
the  weather.  Besides  this  he  organized  in  con- 
nexion with  the  Realschule  in  Briinn  a  series  of 
observation  stations  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try around ;  and  at  the  time  when  most  scientists 
considered  meteorological  problems  to  be  too 
complex  for  hopeful  solution,  Mendel  seems  to 
have  realized  that  the  questions  involved  de- 
pended rather  on  the  collation  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  observations  and  the  deduction  of  defi- 
nite laws  from  them  than  on  any  theoretic  prin- 
ciples of  a  supposed  science  of  the  weather. 

The  man  evidently  had  a  genius  for  scientific 
observations.  His  personal  character  was  of  the 
highest.  The  fact  that  his  fellow-monks  selected 
him  as  abbot  of  the  monastery  shows  the  consid- 
eration in  which  he  was  held  for  tact  and  true 
religious  feeling.  There  are  many  still  alive  in 
Briinn  who  remember  him  well  and  cannot  say 
enough  of  his  kindly  disposition,  the  froliche  Lie- 
benswurdigkeit  (which  means  even  more  than 
our  personal  magnetism),  that  won  for  him  re- 
spect and  reverence  from  all.  He  is  remembered, 
not  only  for  his  successful  discoveries,  and  not 
alone  by  his  friends  and  the  fellow-members  of 
the  Naturalist  Society,  but  by  practically  all  his 


ABBOT  MENDEL  :  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   205 

contemporaries  in  the  town ;  and  it  is  his  lovable 
personal  character  that  seems  to  have  most  im- 
pressed itself  on  them. 

He  was  for  a  time  the  president  of  the  Briinn 
Society  of  Naturalists,  while  also  abbot  of  the 
monastery.  This  is,  perhaps,  a  combination  that 
would  strike  English-speaking  people  as  rather 
curious,  but  seems  to  have  been  considered  not 
out  of  the  regular  course  of  events  in  Austria. 

Father  Mendel's  introduction  to  his  paper  on 
plant  hybridization,  which  describes  the  result  of 
the  experiments  made  by  him  in  deducing  the 
law  which  he  announces,  is  a  model  of  simple 
straightforwardness.  It  breathes  the  spirit  of  the 
loftiest  science  in  its  clear-eyed  vision  of  the 
nature  of  the  problem  he  had  to  solve,  the  fac- 
tors which  make  up  the  problem,  and  the  experi- 
mental observations  necessary  to  elucidate  it.  We 
reproduce  the  introductory  remarks  here  from 
the  translations  made  of  them  by  the  Royal  Hor- 
ticultural Society  of  England.1  Father  Mendel 
said  at  the  beginning  of  his  paper  as  read  8  Feb- 
ruary, 1865 : — 

Experience  of  artificial  fertilization  such  as  is  af- 
fected with  ornamental  plants  in  order  to  obtain  new 
variations  in  color,  has  led  to  the  experiments,  the  de- 


1  The  original  paper  was  published  in  the  "  Ver- 
handlungen  des  Naturforscher-Vereins,"  in  Briinn,  Ab- 
handlungen,  iv,  that  is,  the  proceedings  of  the  year 
1865,  which  were  published  in  1866.  Copies  of  these 
transactions  were  exchanged  with  all  the  important 
scientific  journals,  especially  those  in  connexion  with 
important  societies  and  universities  throughout  Europe, 
and  the  wonder  is  that  this  paper  attracted  so  little 
attention. 


206        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

tails  of  which  I  am  about  to  discuss.  The  striking 
regularity  with  which  the  same  hybrid  forms  always 
reappeared  whenever  fertilization  took  place  between 
the  same  species,  induced  further  experiments  to  be 
undertaken,  the  object  of  which  was  to  follow  up  the 
developments  of  the  hybrid  in  a  number  of  successive 
generations  of  their  progeny. 

Those  who  survey  the  work  that  has  been  done  in 
this  department  up  to  the  present  time  will  arrive  at 
the  conviction  that  among  all  the  numerous  experi- 
ments made  not  one  has  been  carried  out  to  such  an 
extent  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  possible  to 
determine  the  number  of  different  forms  under  which 
the  offspring  of  hybrids  appear,  or  to  arrange  these 
forms  with  certainty,  according  to  their  separate 
generations,  or  to  ascertain  definitely  their  statistical 
relations. 

These  three  primary  necessities  for  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  heredity — namely,  first,  the 
number  of  different  forms  under  which  the  off- 
spring of  hybrids  appear ;  secondly,  the  arrange- 
ment of  these  forms,  with  definiteness  and  cer- 
tainty, as  regards  their  relations  in  the  separate 
generation;  and  thirdly,  the  statistical  results  of 
the  hybridization  of  the  plants  in  successive  gen- 
erations, are  the  secret  of  the  success  of  Mendel's 
work,  as  has  been  very  well  said  by  Bateson,  in 
commenting  on  this  paragraph  in  his  work  on 
Mendel's  "  Principles  of  Heredity."  This  was 
the  first  time  that  any  one  had  ever  realized  ex- 
actly the  nature  of  the  problems  presented  in 
their  naked  simplicity.  "  To  see  a  problem  well 
is  more  than  half  to  solve  it,"  and  this  proved  to 
be  the  case  with  Mendel's  straightforward  vision 
of  the  nature  of  the  experiments  required  for  ad- 
vance in  our  knowledge  of  heredity. 


ABBOT  MENDEL  I  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY  207 

While  Mendel  was  beginning  his  experiments 
almost  absolutely  under  the  guidance  of  his  own 
scientific  spirit,  and  undertaking  his  series  of 
observations  in  the  monastery  garden  without 
any  reference  to  other  work  in  this  line,  he  knew 
very  well  what  distinguished  botanists  were  do- 
ing in  this  line  and  was  by  no  means  presump- 
tuously following  a  study  of  the  deepest  of 
nature's  problems  without  knowing  what  others 
had  accomplished  in  the  matter  in  recent  years. 
In  the  second  paragraph  of  his  introduction  he 
quotes  the  men  whose  work  in  this  science  was 
attracting  attention,  and  says  that  to  this  object 
numerous  careful  observers,  such  a  Kolreuter, 
Gartner,  Herbert,  Lecoq,  Wichura  and  others, 
had  devoted  a  part  of  their  lives  with  inexhaus- 
tible perseverance. 

To  quote  Mendel's  own  words : — 

Gartner,  especially  in  his  work,  "Die  Bastarderzeu- 
gung  im  Pflanzenreiche,"  1  has  recorded  very  valuable 
observations;  and  quite  recently  Wichura  published 
the  results  of  some  profound  observations  on  the 
hybrids  of  the  willow.  That  so  far  no  generally  ap- 
plicable law  governing  the  formation  and  develop- 
ment of  hybrids  has  been  successfully  formulated  can 
hardly  be  wondered  at  by  anyone  who  is  acquainted 
with  the  extent  of  the  task  and  can  appreciate  the 
difficulties  with  which  experiments  of  this  class  have 
to  contend.  A  final  decision  can  only  be  arrived  at 
when  we  shall  have  before  us  the  results  of  the 
changed  detailed  experiments  made  on  plants  belonging 
to  the  most  diverse  orders.     It  requires  some  courage 


1  The  Production  of  Hybrids  in  the  Vegetable  King- 
dom. 


208        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

indeed  to  undertake  a  labor  of  such  far-reaching  ex- 
tent; it  appears,  however,  to  be  the  only  right  way  by 
which  we  can  finally  reach  the  solution  of  a  question 
the  importance  of  which  can  not  be  overestimated  in 
connexion  with  the  history  of  the  evolution  of  organic 
forms. 

The  paper  now  presented  records  the  results  of  such 
a  detailed  experiment.  This  experiment  was  prac- 
tically confined  to  a  small  plant  group,  and  is  now  after 
eight  years'  pursuit  concluded  in  all  essentials.  Whether 
the  plan  upon  which  the  separate  experiments  were 
conducted  and  carried  out  was  the  best  suited  to  attain 
the  desired  end  is  left  to  the  friendly  decision  of  the 
reader. 

Mendel's  discoveries  with  regard  to  peas  and 
the  influence  of  heredity  on  them,  were  founded 
on  very  simple,  but  very  interesting,  observa- 
tions. He  found  that  if  peas  of  different  colors 
were  taken,  that  is  to  say,  if,  for  instance,  yellow- 
colored  peas  were  crossed  with  green,  the  result- 
ing pea  seeds  were,  in  the  great  majority  of 
cases,  of  yellow  color.  If  the  yellow-colored 
peas  obtained  from  such  crossing  were  planted 
and  allowed  to  be  fertilized  only  by  pollen  from 
plants  raised  from  similar  seeds,  the  succeeding 
generation,  however,  did  not  give  all  yellow  peas, 
but  a  definite  number  of  yellow  and  a  definite 
number  of  green.  In  other  words,  while  there 
might  have  been  expected  a  permanence  of  the 
yellow  color,  there  was  really  a  reversion  in  a 
number  of  the  plants  apparently  to  the  type  of 
the  grandparent.  Mendel  tried  the  same  experi- 
ment with  seeds  of  different  shape.  Certain  peas 
are  rounded  and  certain  others  are  wrinkled. 
When  these  were  crossed,  the  next  generation 


ABBOT  MENDEL  '.  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   209 

consisted  of  wrinkled  peas,  but  the  next  succeed- 
ing generation  presented  a  definite  number  of 
round  peas  besides  the  wrinkled  ones,  and  so  on 
as  before.  He  next  bred  peas  with  regard  to 
other  single  qualities,  such  as  the  color  of  the 
seed  coat,  the  inflation  or  constriction  of  the  pod, 
as  to  the  coloring  of  the  pod,  as  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  flowers  along  the  stem,  as  to  the 
length  of  the  stem,  finding  always,  no  matter 
what  the  quality  tested,  the  laws  of  heredity  he 
had  formulated  always  held  true. 

What  he  thus  discovered  he  formulated  some- 
what as  follows :  In  the  case  of  each  of  the 
crosses  the  hybrid  character,  that  is,  the  quality 
of  the  resultant  seed,  resembles  one  of  the  par- 
ental forms  so  closely  that  the  other  escapes  ob- 
servation completely  or  cannot  be  detected  with 
certainty.  This  quality  thus  impressed  on  the 
next  generation,  Mendel  called  the  dominant 
quality.  As,  however,  the  reversion  of  a  definite 
proportion  of  the  peas  in  the  third  generation  to 
that  quality  of  the  original  parent  which  did  not 
appear  in  the  second  generation  was  found  to 
occur,  thus  showing  that,  though  it  cannot  be 
detected,  it  is  present,  Mendel  called  it  the  re- 
cessive quality.  He  did  not  find  transitional 
forms  in  any  of  his  experiments,  but  constantly 
observed  that  when  plants  were  bred  with  regard 
to  two  special  qualities,  one  of  those  qualities  be- 
came dominant  in  the  resultant  hybrid,  and  the 
other  became  recessive,  that  is,  present  though 
latent  and  ready  to  produce  its  effects  upon  a 
definite  proportion  of  the  succeeding  generation. 


2IO         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

Remembering,  then,  that  Mendel  means  by  hy- 
brid the  result  of  the  crossing  of  two  distinct 
species,  his  significant  discovery  has  been  stated 
thus :  The  hybrid,  whatever  its  own  character, 
produces  ripe  germ  cells,  which  bear  only  the 
pure  character  of  one  parent  or  the  other.  Thus, 
when  one  parent  has  the  character  "A,"  in  peas, 
for  example,  a  green  color,  and  the  other  the 
character  "  B,"  in  peas  once  more  a  yellow  color, 
the  hybrid  will  have  in  cases  of  simple  dominance 
the  character  "AB"  or  "BA,"  but  with  the  second 
quality  in  either  case  not  noticeable.  Whatever 
the  character  of  the  hybrid  may  be,  that  is  to 
say,  to  revert  to  the  example  of  the  peas,  whether 
it  be  green  or  yellow,  its  germ  cells  when  mature 
will  bear  either  the  character  "A"  (green),  or 
the  character  "  B  "  (yellow),  but  not  both. 

As  Professor  Castle  says :  "  This  perfectly 
simple  principle  is  known  as  the  law  of  segrega- 
tion, or  the  law  of  the  purity  of  the  germ  cells. 
It  bids  fair  to  prove  as  fundamental  to  a  right 
understanding  of  the  facts  of  heredity  as  is  the 
law  of  definite  proportions  in  chemistry.  From 
it  follow  many  important  consequences." 

To  follow  this  acute  observer's  work  still  fur- 
ther— by  letting  the  crossbreds  fertilize  them- 
selves, Mendel  raised  a  third  generation.  In  this 
generation  were  individuals  which  showed  the 
dominant  character  and  also  individuals  which 
presented  the  recessive  character.  Such  an  ob- 
servation had  of  course  been  made  in  a  good 
many  instances  before. 


ABBOT  MENDEL!  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   211 

But  Mendel  noted — and  this  is  the  essence  of 
the  new  discovery  in  his  observations —  that  in 
this  third  generation  the  numerical  proportion  of 
dominants  to  recessives  is  in  the  average  of  a 
series  of  cases  approximately  constant — being,  in 
fact,  as  three  to  one.  With  almost  absolute  reg- 
ularity this  proportion  was  maintained  in  every 
case  of  crossing  of  pairs  of  characters,  quite  op- 
posed to  one  another,  in  his  pea  plants.  In  the 
first  generation,  raised  from  his  crossbreds,  or, 
as  he  calls  them,  hybrids,  there  were  seventy-five 
per  cent  dominants  and  twenty-five  per  cent  re- 
cessives. 

When  these  plants  were  again  self-fertilized 
and  the  offspring  of  each  plant  separately  sown, 
a  new  surprise  awaited  the  observer.  The  prog- 
eny of  the  recessives  remained  pure  recessive; 
and  in  any  number  of  subsequent  generations 
never  produced  the  dominant  type  again,  that  is, 
never  reverted  to  the  original  parent,  whose  qual- 
ities had  failed  to  appear  in  the  second  genera- 
tion. When  the  seeds  obtained  by  self-fertiliz- 
ing the  plants  with  the  dominant  characteristics 
were  sown,  it  was  found  by  the  test  of  progeny 
that  the  dominants  were  not  all  of  like  nature, 
but  consisted  of  two  classes — first,  some  which 
gave  rise  to  pure  dominants;  and  secondly,  others 
which  gave  a  mixed  offspring,  composed  partly 
of  recessives,  partly  of  dominants.  Once  more, 
however,  the  ratio  of  heredity  asserted  itself  and 
it  was  found  that  the  average  numerical  propor- 
tions were  constant — those  with  pure  dominant 


212         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

offspring  being  to  those  with  mixed  offspring  as 
one  to  two.  Hence,  it  was  seen  that  the  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  dominants  are  not  really  of  iden- 
tical constitution,  but  consist  of  twenty-five  per 
cent  which  are  pure  dominants  and  fifty  per  cent 
which  are  really  crossbreds,  though  like  most  of 
the  crossbreds  raised  by  crossing  the  two  orig- 
inal varieties,  they  exhibit  the  dominant  char- 
acter only. 

These  fifty  crossbreds  have  mixed  offspring; 
these  offspring  again  in  their  numerical  propor- 
tion follow  the  same  law,  namely,  three  domi- 
nants to  one  recessive.  The  recessives  are  pure 
like  those  of  the  last  generation,  but  the  domi- 
nants can,  by  further  self-fertilization  and  culti- 
vation of  the  seeds  produced,  be  again  shown  to 
be  made  up  of  pure  dominant  and  crossbreds  in 
the  same  proportion  of  one  dominant  to  two 
crossbreds. 

The  process  of  breaking  up  into  the  parent 
forms  is  thus  continued  in  each  successive  gen- 
eration, the  same  numerical  laws  being  followed 
so  far  as  observation  has  gone.  As  Mendel's  ob- 
servations have  now  been  confirmed  by  workers 
in  many  parts  of  the  world,  investigating  many 
different  kinds  of  plants,  it  would  seem  that  this 
law  which  he  discovered  has  a  basis  in  the  nature 
of  things  and  is  to  furnish  the  foundation  for  a 
new  and  scientific  theory  of  heredity,  while  at  the 
same  time  affording  scope  for  the  collection  of 
observations  of  the  most  valuable  character  with 
a  definite  purpose  and  without  any  theoretic  bias. 


ABBOT  MENDEL:  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   21$ 

The  task  of  the  practical  breeder  who  seeks  to 
establish  or  fix  a  new  variety  produced  by  cross- 
breeding in  a  case  involving  two  variable  char- 
acters is  simply  the  isolation  and  propagation  of 
that  one  in  each  sixteen  of  the  second  generation 
offspring  which  will  be  pure  as  regards  the  de- 
sired combination  of  characters.  Mendel's  dis- 
covery, by  putting  the  breeder  in  possession  of 
this  information  enables  him  to  attack  this  prob- 
lem systematically  with  confidence  in  the  out- 
come, whereas  hitherto  his  work,  important  and 
fascinating  as  it  is,  has  consisted  largely  of  grop- 
ing for  a  treasure  in  the  dark.  The  greater  the 
number  of  separately  variable  characters  involved 
in  a  cross,  the  greater  will  be  the  number  of  new 
combinations  obtainable;  the  greater  too  will  be 
the  number  of  individuals  which  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  raise  in  order  to  secure  all  the  possible 
combinations ;  and  the  greater  again  will  be  the 
difficulty  of  isolating  the  pure,  that  is,  the  stable 
forms  in  such  as  are  similar  to  them  in  appear- 
ance, but  still  hybrid  in  one  or  more  characters. 

The  law  of  Mendel  reduces  to  an  exact  science 
the  art  of  breeding  in  the  case  most  carefully 
studied  by  him,  that  of  entire  dominance.  It 
gives  to  the  breeder  a  new  conception  of  "purity." 
No  animal  or  plant  is  "  pure,"  simply  because  it 
is  descended  from  a  long  line  of  ancestors,  pos- 
sessing a  desired  combination  of  characters ;  but 
any  animal  or  plant  is  pure  if  it  produces  gametes 
— that  is,  particles  for  conjugation  of  only  one 
sort — even  though  its  grandparents  may  among 


214         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

themselves  have  possessed  opposite  characters. 
The  existence  of  purity  can  be  established  with 
certainty  only  by  suitable  breeding  tests,  espec- 
ially by  crossing  with  recessives ;  but  it  may  be 
safely  assumed  for  any  animal  or  plant,  de- 
scended from  parents  which  were  like  each  other 
and  had  been  shown  by  breeding  tests  to  be  pure. 
This  naturally  leads  us  to  what  some  biologists 
have  considered  to  be  the  most  important  part  of 
his  work — the  theory  which  he  elaborated  to  ex- 
plain his  results,  the  principle  which  he  considers 
to  be  the  basis  of  the  laws  he  discovered.  Men- 
del suggests  as  following  logically  from  the 
results  of  his  experiments  and  observations  a  cer- 
tain theory  of  the  constitution  of  germinal  par- 
ticles. He  has  put  this  important  matter  so 
clearly  himself  and  with  such  little  waste  of 
words  that  it  seems  better  to  quote  the  transla- 
tion of  the  passage  as  given  by  Professor  Bate- 
son,1  than  to  attempt  to  explain  it  in  other  words* 
Mendel  says : — 

The  results  of  the  previously  described  experiments 
induced  further  experiments,  the  results  of  which  ap- 
pear fitted  to  afford  some  conclusions  as  regards  the 
composition  of  the  egg  and  pollen-cells  of  hybrids.  An 
important  matter  for  consideration  is  afforded  in  peas 
(pisum)  by  the  circumstance  that  among  the  progeny 
of  the  hybrids  constant  forms  appear,  and  that  this 
occurs,  too,  in  all  combinations  of  the  associated  char- 
acters.    So  far  as  experience  goes,  we  find  it  in  every 


1  Bateson :    Mendel's  Principles   of  Heredity.     Cam- 
bridge :     The   University    Press.      1902. 


ABBOT  MENDEL:  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   215 


case  confirmed  that  constant  progeny  can  only  be 
formed  when  the  egg-cells  and  the  fertilizing  pollen 
are  of  like  character,  so  that  both  are  provided  with 
the  material  for  creating  quite  similar  individuals,  as 
is  the  case  with  the  normal  fertilization  of  pure 
species. 

We  must  therefore  regard  it  as  essential  that  exactly 
similar  factors  are  at  work  also  in  the  production  of 
the  constant  forms  in  the  hybrid  plants.  Since  the 
various  constant  forms  are  produced  in  one  plant,  or 
even  in  one  flower  of  a  plant,  the  conclusion  appears 
logical  that  in  the  ovaries  of  the  hybrids  there  are 
formed  as  many  sorts  of  egg-cells  and  in  the  anthers 
as  many  sorts  of  pollen-cells  as  there  are  possible 
constant  combination  forms,  and  that  these  egg  and 
pollen-cells  agree  in  their  internal  composition  with 
those  of  the  separate  forms. 

In  point  of  fact,  it  is  possible  to  demonstrate  theoreti- 
cally that  this  hypothesis  would  fully  suffice  to  account 
for  the  development  of  the  hybrids  in  the  separate 
generations,  if  we  might  at  the  same  time  assume  that 
the  various  kinds  of  egg  and  pollen-cells  were  formed 
in  the  hybrids  on  the  average  in  equal  numbers. 

Bateson  says  in  a  note  on  this  passage  that 
this  last  and  the  preceding  paragraph  contain  the 
essence  of  the  Mendelian  principles  of  heredity. 
Mendel  himself,  after  stating  this  hypothesis, 
gives  the  details  of  a  series  of  experiments  by 
which  he  was  able  to  decide  that  the  theoretic 
considerations  suggested  were  founded  in  the 
nature  of  plants  and  their  germinal  cells. 

It  will,  of  course,  be  interesting  to  realize  what 
the  bearing  of  Mendel's  discoveries  is  on  the 
question  of  the  stability  of  species  as  well  as  on 
the  origin  of  species.     Professor  Morgan,  in  his 


2l6         CATHOLIC    CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

article  on  Darwinism  in  the  "  Light  of  Modern 
Criticism,"  already  quoted,  says  the  important 
fact  (with  regard  to  Mendel's  Law)  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  theory  of  evolution  is  that 
"  the  new  species  have  sprung  fully  armed  from 
the  old  ones,  like  Minerva  from  the  head  of 
Jove."  "  From  de  Vries's  results,"  he  adds,  "  we 
understand  better  how  it  is  that  we  do  not  see 
new  forms  arising,  because  they  appear,  as  it 
were,  fully  equipped  over  night.  Old  species  are 
not  slowly  changed  into  new  ones,  but  a  shaking 
up  of  the  old  organization  takes  place  and  the 
egg  brings  forth  a  new  species.  It  is  like  the 
turning  of  the  kaleidoscope,  a  slight  shift  and 
the  new  figure  suddenly  appears.  It  needs  no 
great  penetration  to  see  that  this  point  of  view  is 
entirely  different  from  the  conception  of  the  for- 
mation of  new  species  by  accumulating  individual 
variations,  until  they  are  carried  so  far  that  the 
new  form  may  be  called  a  new  species." 

With  regard  to  this  question  of  the  transfor- 
mation of  one  species  into  another,  Mendel  him- 
self, in  the  concluding  paragraphs  of  his  article 
on  hybridization,  seems  to  agree  with  the  expres- 
sions of  Morgan.  He  quotes  Gartner's  opinion 
with  apparent  approval :  "  Gartner,  by  the  results 
of  these  transformation  experiments  was  led  to 
oppose  the  opinion  of  those  naturalists  who  dis- 
pute the  stability  of  plant  species  and  believe  in 
a  continuous  evolution  of  vegetation.  He  per- 
ceives in  the  complete  transformation  of  one 
species   into   another   an  indubitable  proof   that 


ABBOT  MENDEL:  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   21J 

species  are  fixed  within  limits  beyond  which  they 
cannot  change."  "Although  this  opinion,"  adds 
Mendel,  "  cannot  be  unconditionally  accepted,  we 
find,  on  the  other  hand,  in  Gartner's  experiments 
a  noteworthy  confirmation  of  that  supposition  re- 
garding the  variability  of  cultivated  plants  which 
has  already  been  expressed."  This  expression 
of  opinion  is  not  very  definite,  and  Bateson,  in 
what  Professor  Wilson  of  Columbia  calls  his 
"  recent  admirable  little  book  on  Mendel's  prin- 
ciples," adds  the  following  note  that  may  prove 
of  service  in  elucidating  Mendel's  meaning,  as 
few  men  have  entered  so  fully  into  the  under- 
standing of  Mendel's  work  as  Bateson,  who  in- 
troduced him  to  the  English-speaking  scientific 
public.  "  The  argument  of  this  paragraph  ap- 
pears to  be  that  though  the  general  mutability  of 
natural  species  might  be  doubtful,  yet  among  cul- 
tivated plants  the  transference  of  characters  may 
be  accomplished  and  may  occur  by  integral  steps 
[italics  ours],  until  one  species  is  definitely  'trans- 
formed '  into  the  other." 

Needless  to  say,  this  is  quite  different  from  the 
gradual  transformation  of  species  that  Darwin- 
ism or  Lamarckism  assumes  to  take  place.  One 
species  becomes  another  per  saltum  in  virtue  of 
some  special  energy  infused  into  it,  some  original 
tendency  of  its  intrinsic  nature,  not  because  of 
gradual  modification  by  forces  outside  of  the 
organisms,  nor  because  of  the  combination  of  in- 
fluences they  are  subjected  to  from  without  and 
within,  because  of  tendency  to  evolute  plus  en- 


2l8        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN   IN   SCIENCE 

vironmental  forces.  This  throws  biology  back  to 
the  permanency  of  species  in  themselves,  though 
successive  generations  may  be  of  different  spe- 
cies, and  does  away  with  the  idea  of  missing 
links,  since  there  are  no  gradual  connecting  gra- 
dations. 

A  very  interesting  phase  of  Mendel's  discov- 
eries is  concerned  with  the  relative  value  of  the 
egg-cell  and  the  pollen-cell,  as  regards  their  effect 
upon  future  generations.  It  is  an  old  and  oft- 
discussed  problem  as  to  which  of  these  germinal 
particles  is  the  more  important  in  its  influence 
upon  the  transmission  of  parental  qualities. 
Mendel's  observations  would  seem  to  decide  defi- 
nitely that,  in  plants  and,  by  implication,  in  ani- 
mals, since  the  germinal  process  is  biogenetically 
similar,  the  value  of  both  germinal  particles  is 
exactly  equal. 

In  a  note,  Mendel  says : — 

In  pisum  (i.  e.  in  peas),  it  is  beyond  doubt  that,  for 
the  formation  of  the  new  embryo,  a  perfect  union  of 
the  elements  of  both  fertilizing  cells  must  take  place. 
How  could  we  otherwise  explain  that,  among  the  off- 
spring of  the  hybrids,  both  original  types  reappear  in 
equal  numbers,  and  with  all  their  peculiarities?  If 
the  influence  of  the  egg-cell  upon  the  pollen-cell  were 
only  external,  if  it  fulfilled  the  role  of  a  nurse  only, 
then  the  result  of  each  artificial  fertilization  could  be 
no  other  than  that  the  developed  hybrid  should  exactly 
resemble  the  pollen  parent,  or,  at  any  rate,  do  so  very 
closely.  These  experiments,  so  far,  have  in  no  wise 
been  confirmed.  An  evident  proof  of  the  complete 
union  of  the  contents  of  both  cells  is  afforded  by  the 


ABBOT  MENDEL:  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY  210, 

experience  gained  on  all  sides,  that  it  is  immaterial  as 
regards  the  form  of  the  hybrid  which  of  the  original 
species  is  the  seed  cell,  or  which"  the  pollen  parent ! 

This  is  the  first  actual  demonstration  of  the 
equivalent  value  of  both  germinal  particles  as  re- 
gards their  influence  on  transmission  inheritance 
in  future  generations. 

It  is  only  by  simplifying  the  problem  so  that 
all  disturbing  factors  could  be  eliminated  that 
Mendel  succeeded  in  making  this  demonstration. 
Too  many  qualities  have  hitherto  been  considered 
with  consequent  confusion  as  to  the  results  ob- 
tained. 

It  is  of  the  genius  of  the  man  that  he  should 
have  been  able  to  succeed  in  seeing  the  problem 
in  simple  terms  while  it  is  apparently  so  complex, 
and  thus  obtain  results  that  are  as  far-reaching 
as  the  problem  they  solve  is  basic  in  its  character. 

Bateson,  in  his  work  Mendel's  Principles  of 
Heredity,  says : — 

It  may  seem  surprising  that  a  work  of  such  impor- 
tance should  so  long  have  failed  to  find  recognition 
and  to  become  current  in  the  world  of  science.  It  is 
true  that  the  Journal  in  which  it  appeared  is  scarce, 
but  this  circumstance  has  seldom  long  delayed  general 
recognition.  The  cause  is  unquestionably  to  be  found 
in  that  neglect  of  the  experimental  study  of  the  problem 
of  species  which  supervened  on  the  general  acceptance 
of  the  Darwinian  doctrine.  The  problem  of  species, 
as  Kolreuter,  Gartner,  Naudin,  Wichura,  and  the  hy- 
bridists of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  con- 
ceived it,  attracted  thenceforth  no  workers. 


220        CATHOLIC   CHURCHMEN    IN    SCIENCE 

The  question,  it  was  imagined,  had  been  answered 
and  the  debate  ended.  No  one  felt  much  interest  in 
the  matter.  A  host  of  other  lines  of  work  was  sud- 
denly opened  up,  and  in  1865  the  more  original  in- 
vestigators naturally  found  these  new  methods  of  re- 
search more  attractive  than  the  tedious  observations 
of  hybridizers,  whose  inquiries  were  supposed,  more- 
over, to  have  led  to  no  definite  results. 

In  1868  appeared  the  first  edition  of  Darwin's  Ani- 
mals and  Plants,  marking  the  very  zenith  of  these 
studies  with  regard  to  hybrids  and  the  questions  in 
heredity  which  they  illustrate,  and  thenceforth  the  de- 
cline in  the  experimental  investigation  of  evolution  and 
the  problem  of  species  have  been  studied.  With  the 
rediscovery  and  confirmation  of  Mendel's  work  by  de 
Vries,  Correns  and  Tschermak  in  1900  a  new  era 
begins.  Had  Mendel's  work  come  into  the  hands  of 
Darwin  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  history 
of  the  development  of  evolutionary  philosophy  would 
have  been  very  different  from  that  which  we  have 
witnessed. 

That  Mendel's  work,  appearing  as  it  did  at  a  mo- 
ment when  several  naturalists  of  the  first  rank  were 
still  occupied  with  these  problems,  should  have  passed 
wholly  unnoted,  will  always  remain  inexplicable,  the 
more  so  as  the  Briinn  society  exchanged  its  publi- 
cation with  most  of  the  great  academies  of  Europe, 
including  both  the  'Royal  and  the  Linnean  societies  of 
London. 

The  whole  history  of  Mendel's  work,  its  long 
period  without  effect  upon  scientific  thought,  its 
thoroughly  simple  yet  satisfactory  character,  its 
basis  in  manifold  observations  of  problems  sim- 
plified to  the  last  degree,  and  its  present  complete 
acceptance  illustrate  very  well  the  chief  defect  of 
the  last  two  generations  of  workers  in  biology. 


ABBOT  MENDEL  :  NEW  OUTLOOK  IN  HEREDITY   221 

There  has  been  entirely  too  much  theorizing,  too 
much  effort  at  observations  for  the  purpose  of 
bolstering  up  preconceived  ideas — preaccepted 
dogmas  of  science  that  have  proved  false  in  the 
end — and  too  little  straightforward  observation 
and  simple  reporting  of  the  facts  without  trying 
to  have  them  fit  into  any  theory  prematurely,  that 
is  until  their  true  place  was  found.  This  will  be 
the  criterion  by  which  the  latter  half  of  nine- 
teenth century  biology  will  be  judged;  and  be- 
cause of  failure  here  much  of  our  supposed  prog- 
ress will  have  no  effect  on  the  current  of  biolog- 
ical progress,  but  will  represent  only  an  eddy  in 
which  there  was  no  end  of  bustling  movement 
manifest  but  no  real  advance. 

As  stated  very  clearly  by  Professor  Morgan  at 
the  beginning  of  this  paper,  and  Professor  Bate- 
son  near  the  end,  Darwin's  doctrine  of  natural 
selection  as  the  main  factor  in  evolution  and  its 
practically  universal  premature  acceptance  by 
scientific  workers  in  biology  are  undoubtedly  re- 
sponsible for  this.  The  present  generation  may 
well  be  warned,  then,  not  to  surrender  their  judg- 
ment to  taking  theories,  but  to  wait  in  patience 
for  the  facts  in  the  case,  working,  not  theorizing, 
while  they  wait. 


Date  Due 


MAYIS'35 


JcA 


FEB  1 6' 


V13    l*'M 


APR  23  U 


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JAN   i  9 





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